^ 


MEMOIR 


Valentine  Mott,  m.  d.,  ll.  d., 

PROFESSOR   OF  SURGERY  IN  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  THE    CITY   OF   NEW   YORK; 
MEMBER  OF  THE  INSTITUTE  OF  FRANCE. 


BY 


S.   D.  GROSS,  M.  D.,  LL.  D. 


NEW    YORK: 

D.    APPLETON   AND    CO. 

PHILADELPHIA:     LINDSAY   AND    BLAKISTON. 
1868. 


PHILADELPHIA: 

COLLINS,    PRINTER. 


CONTENTS. 


Chapter  I. — First  Twenty-four  Years. 

Preliminary  education — Studies  medicine — His  private  preceptor 
— Attends  lectures — Graduation — Visits  Europe  —  His  Lon- 
don teachers — The  University  of  Edinburgh  ,  .  .        i 

Chapter  II. — Settlement  in  New  York. 

Settles  in  New  York — Rapid  success  in  practice — Delivers  a  pri- 
vate course  of  lectures  —  Is  appointed  Professor  of  Surgery — 
Rutgers  College — Account  of  his  colleagues  ...        5 

Chapter  III. — Foreign  Travels. 

Visits  Europe  —  Interview  with  Sir  Astley  Cooper  —  Sojourn  at 
Paris — French  Surgeons — Graefe  and  DiefFenbach — Athens — 
Epidaurus — Constantinople  ....••      24 

Chapter  IV. — Surgical  Operations. 

Ligation  of  the  innominate  artery — Excision  of  the  lower  jaw — 
Amputation  at  the  hip-joint — Excision  of  the  clavicle — Hydro- 
rachitis —  Ligation  of  the  common  iliac  —  Immobility  of  the 
lovver  jaw — Nasal  polyp — Lithotomy — Qualities  as  an  operator     3  7 


viil  CONTENTS. 

Chapter  V. — Literary,  Educational,  and  other  Labors. 

Writes  little — New  York  Medical  and  Surgical  Register — Book 
of  Travels — Velpeau's  Surgery — Introductory  and  other  dis- 
courses—  College  teaching  —  Private  pupils  —  Prize  medals — 
Connection  with  hospitals  .......     57 

Chapter  VL — Last  Illness. 

Last  illness — Funeral — Personal  appearance — Marriage — Memo- 
rial Library — Family  .......     69 

Chapter  VIL — Character  and  Habits. 

Earnest  professional  devotion  —  Reputation  as  a  great  surgeon  — 
Elected  a  Member  of  the  Institute  of  France — Patriotism  and 
politics — Professional  fees — System  and  punctuality — Domes- 
tic habits — Religious  views — Portraits  and  busts — Conclusion     77 


BfoiBC(f.':al 


\oo 


PREFACE. 


Five  summers  ago,  while  passing  a  few  weeks 
at  one  of  our  celebrated  watering  places,  I  had 
the  pleasure  of  meeting  with  an  old  and  esteemed 
friend,  a  former  colleague  of  Dr.  Mott  and  myself 
in  the  same  school,  although  not  at  the  same 
time.  In  talking  over  men  and  things,  our  con- 
versation naturally  turned  upon  the  Coryphsus  of 
American  surgery,  and,  after  mutually  paying  him 
some  well-deserved  compliments,  I  said,  "  If  I 
outlive  Dr.  Mott,  as,  considering  the  disparity  of 
our  ages,  I  possibly  may,  I  shall  esteem  it  to  be 
my  duty,  not  less  than  my  pleasure,  to  prepare  a 
discourse  upon  his  life  and  character  for  the 
benefit  and  instruction  of  my  pupils."  He  cor- 
dially agreed  with  me,  not  only  that  we  owed 
him  ''a  great  debt  of  gratitude  for  the  exalted 
services   he   had    rendered    to    the   profession,  but 

A* 

795665 


iv  PREFACE. 

that  the  example  of  such  a  man,  if  properly  por- 
trayed, could  not  fail  to  exercise  a  most  salutary 
influence  upon  our  medical  youths,  in  awaking 
in  them  habits  of  industry  and  a  laudable  am- 
bition to  emulate  his  many  virtues.  The  great 
surgeon,  in  the  providence  of  God,  has  passed 
away,  with  a  world-wide  reputation  and  an  im- 
perishable name,  and  I  now  fulfil  my  self-imposed 
vow. 

My  acquaintance  with  Dr.  Mott  commenced 
in  the  winter  of  1828,  in  the  amphitheatre  of 
Rutgers  Medical  College,  during  a  brief  visit  at 
New  York.  Having  learned  that  he  would  meet 
his  class  at  a  certain  hour  in  the  morning,  and 
anxious  to  see  and  hear  a  man  who,  although  he 
had  hardly  reached  the  meridian  of  life,  already 
occupied  the  highest  round  in  the  ladder  of  fame, 
I  made  my  way  to  his  private  room,  where  I  had 
the  good  fortune  to  be  presented  to  him  by  his 
illustrious  colleague.  Dr.  Hosack.  His  discourse, 
listened  to  with  profound  attention  and  respect  by 
h'is  young  auditors,  was  upon  fractures  of  the 
skull,    a    subject    to   the   study   of  which,   as    he 


PREFACE.  V 

informed  me,  he  had  devoted  much  time  and 
reflection.  The  exercises  ended,  a  brief  conversa- 
tion ensued,  when  a  cordial  shake  of  the  hand 
closed  the  interview.  Four  years  after,  during 
the  height  of  the  Asiatic  cholera,  when  that  ruth- 
less malady  was  daily  sweeping  away  upwards  of 
three  hundred  citizens  of  New  York,  I  had  the 
pleasure  of  meeting  Dr.  Mott  again,  now  as  a 
guest  at  his  house;  for  a  friend  had  given  me  a 
letter  of  introduction  which  secured  to  me  all 
that  courtly  consideration  for  which  he  was  so 
distinguished.  In  1850,  I  was  appointed  his  suc- 
cessor in  the  chair  of  surgery  in  the  University  of 
the  City  of  New  York,  and  was  again  received 
by  him  with  the  same  kindness  and  hospitality 
which  he  had  extended  to  me  eighteen  years  be- 
fore. Our  last  interview  occurred  in  1863,  when 
we  met  as  members  of  an  Examining  Board  ap- 
pointed by  Dr.  Hammond,  Surgeon-General  of 
the  United  States  Army,  to  deliberate  upon  mat- 
ters of  grave  interest  to  our  wounded  soldiers. 

It  will  thus  be  perceived  that  my  acquaintance 
with  Dr.  Mott,  although  never  intimate,  extended 


vi  PREFACE. 

through  a  period  of  many  years;  and,  it  is  hardly 
necessary  to  add,  that,  as  one  of  his  countrymen, 
allied  to  him  by  similarity  of  taste  and  pursuit,  I 
watched  with  pride  and  satisfaction  his  lofty  and 
brilliant  career  as  one  of  the  great  surgeons  of  the 
age. 

The  composition  of  this  biographical  sketch 
was  to  me  a  source  of  unalloyed  pleasure.  It 
was  like  the  contemplation  of  a  beautiful  land- 
scape, mellowed  by  the  gorgeous  rays  of  the  set- 
ting sun ;  or  like  a  walk,  in  a  bright  summer's 
morning,  along  the  banks  of  a  quiet  and  modest 
stream,  enlivened  by  the  songs  of  birds,  and  stud- 
ded with  magnificent  trees  and  flowers,  filling  the 
air  with  their  delicious  perfume. 

It  is  proper  to  add  that  an  abstract  of  this  Me- 
moir was  read  before  the  Faculties  and  Students 
of  the  two  medical  schools  of  this  city  last  De- 
cember, and  soon  after,  by  special  invitation,  be- 
fore the  Bellevue  Hospital  Medical  College  of 
New  York. 

Jefferson  Medical  College, 
Philadelphia,  March   ist,  1868. 


MEMOIR 


OF 


VALENTINE   MOTT,  M.D.,  LL.D. 


CHAPTER  I. 

FIRST  TWENTY-FOUR  YEARS. 

Preliminary  education — Studies  medicine — His  private  preceptor — At- 
tends lectures — Graduation — Visits  Europe — His  London  teachers — 
The  University  of  Edinburgh. 

When  a  great  and  good  man  dies,  it  is  fitting 
that  his  fellow-citizens,  especially  the  members  of 
his  own  profession,  should  pause  to  contemplate 
his  virtues,  and  unite  in  paying  a  just  tribute  of 
affection  and  esteem  to  his  memory.  It  is  fitting 
that  the  age  which  owned  him,  and  which  he 
adorned  and  illustrated,  should  make  a  recognition 
of  his  services  in  order  that  those  who  may  come 
after  him  may  emulate  his  character,  and  thus 
increase  the  measure  of  their  own  usefulness. 
Biography  is  a  mental  portrait,  or,  as  Good  Old 
Fuller  terms  it,  a  perspective  glass,  reflecting  alike 
the  vices  and  the  virtues  of  men;  it  is  more — it  is 
philosophy,  the  philosophy  of  individuality,  teach- 
ing by  example.  "The  record  of  the  life  of  a 
good  man  is,"  to  use  the  language  of  Milton,  **the 
precious  life-blood  of  a  master-spirit,  embalmed 
and  treasured  up  on  purpose  to  a  life  beyond  life." 
Of  all  the  studies  that  can  engage  attention,  bio- 
graphy  is   at   once   the   most   fascinating   and   the 

I 


2  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF 

most  useful  in  moulding  and  directing  human 
conduct.  When  a  person  has  attained  to  extraordi- 
nary eminence,  we  feel  almost  an  instinctive  desire 
to  scan  his  intellect  and  to  inquire  into  the  means 
which  he  employed  to  accomplish  his  end;  whe- 
ther his  distinction  was  due  to  fortuitous  circum- 
stances, or  solely  to  the  force  of  his  genius  and 
talents. 

The  man  whose  life  I  desire  to  delineate  was 
no  ordinary  personage.  He  early  sowed  the  seeds 
of  his  greatness.  His  reputation  was  built  up  by 
able  hands.  His  career,  brilliant  beyond  that  of 
most  men  in  the  medical  profession,  extended 
through  a  period  of  nearly  four-fifths  of  a  century. 
To  epitomize  his  biography  is  therefore  no  easy 
task,  and  yet  this  is  all  that  the  space  allotted  to 
me  will  permit. 

Hardly  two  years  and  a  half  have  elapsed  since 
the  messenger  of  God,  standing  at  the  grave  of 
Valentine  Mott,  uttered  the  solemn  words,  "Earth 
to  earth,  dust  to  dust,  ashes  to  ashes,"  and  the 
crowds  of  friends,  acquaintances,  and  professional 
brethren  that  followed  his  remains  to  their  last 
resting  place  retraced  their  steps  with  sorrowing 
hearts  to  their  homes  in  the  great  metropolis. 
Every  one  felt  that  New  York  had  lost  one  of 
its  most  venerated  citizens,  medical  science  a  most 
zealous  votary,  and  American  surgery  its  acknow- 
ledged head.     The  grief  which  followed  his  de- 


VALENTINE  MOTT,  M.  D.  3 

mise  was  not  confined  to  his  own  country;  his 
fame  had  gone  abroad,  and  physicians  everywhere 
knew  and  appreciated  his  merits. 

It  is  confessedly  difficult,  under  any  circum- 
stances, to  write  the  biography  of  a  contemporary. 
On  the  one  hand,  there  is  great  danger  of  indulg- 
ing in  fulsome  eulogy;  and,  on  the  other,  of  being 
blinded  by  jealousy  and  prejudice.  In  either  event, 
injustice  is  apt  to  be  done  alike  to  the  subject  and 
to  the  truth  of  history.  Whether  the  present 
instance  affords  an  exception  to  the  rule  others 
must  determine.  I  think  I  comprehend  the  cha- 
racter of  Dr.  Mott  sufficiently  to  avoid  both  ex- 
tremes. His  career  was  so  quiet  and  serene,  his 
conduct  in  all  his  relations,  private  and  public,  so 
pure  and  virtuous,  that  it  will  be  easy  to  seize  the 
prominent  features  of  his  mind,  and  to  place  them 
in  bold  relief  before  the  world.  It  has  been  truly 
said  by  Thomas  Carlyle  that  a  well-written  life  is 
almost  as  rare  as  a  well-spent  one.  That  of  Mott 
should  be  written  as  much  with  the  heart  as  with 
the  pen.  My  only  qualification  for  the  task  con- 
sists in  a  lively  sympathy  for  the  great  surgeon,  in 
a  tolerably  intimate  acquaintance  with  the  history 
of  his  career,  and  in  the  pleasure  arising  from  a 
similarity  of  pursuits. 

Valentine  Mott,  whose  name  will  be  perpetuated 
as  long  as  surgical  science  shall  be  honored  among 
men,  was  born  at  Glen  Cove,  Long  Island,  on  the 


4  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF 

20th  of  August,  1785,  and  consequently  within  a 
few  years  after  the  close  of  the  great  struggle 
which  eventuated  in  the  establishment  of  our  in- 
dependence as  a  free  and  sovereign  people.  The 
father,  Henry  Mott,  was  a  pupil  of  the  elder  Bard, 
and,  after  having  practised  medicine  at  different 
places,  but  more  particularly  at  New  York,  died 
at  an  advanced  age  in  that  city,  in  1840.  The 
mother  was  an  only  daughter  of  Samuel  Way,  of 
North  Hempstead.  The  son,  no  doubt,  owed 
much  of  his  success  in  life  to  her  careful  and 
pious  training. 

The  great  ancestor  of  Valentine  was  Adam  Mott, 
an  Englishman,  who  settled  on  Long  Island  soon 
after  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century.  He 
was  one  of  the  original  disciples  of  George  Fox, 
the  founder  of  the  Society  of  Friends,  an  institu- 
tion distinguished  alike,  at  least  in  its  more  primi- 
tive state,  for  the  purity  of  its  morals,  its  love  of 
freedom,  and  its  Christian  beneficence.  It  is  not 
surprising  that  such  a  religion  should  have  deeply 
impressed  itself  upon  the  minds  and  hearts  of  the 
descendants  of  Adam  Mott.  They  were  all  Qua- 
kers; and  Valentine  retained  his  respect  and  admi- 
ration for  the  sect  to  the  close  of  his  long  and 
valuable  life. 

Of  the  early  life  of  Valentine  Mott — his  tastes, 
habits,  and  pursuits — no  information  has  reached 
me.     That  it  was  sweet  and  gentle,  in  strict  ac- 


VALENTINE  MOTT,  M.  D.  ^ 

cordance  with  the  tenets  and  practices  of  the  faith 
in  which  he  was  educated,  and  in  full  consonance 
with  his  own  sweet  and  gentle  nature,  no  one  can 
doubt.  The  boy  was  father  to  the  man,  in  the 
most  rigid  sense  of  the  term;  docile,  obedient, 
pure  in  mind,  cautious  in  speech,  neat  in  dress, 
erect  in  person,  walking  as  one  who  reverences 
God,  and  who  respects  the  rights  and  feelings  of 
his  fellows;  in  a  word,  a  perfect  gentleman.  Those 
who  knew  Dr.  Mott  later  in  life,  in  the  full  ma- 
turity of  his  intellect  and  fame,  and  remember  his 
courtly  bearing,  could  picture  the  boy  in  no  other 
li9:ht. 

He  received  his  classical  education  in  a  private 
seminary  at  Newtown,  where  his  father,  for  a 
time,  practised  his  profession.  What  attainments 
he  made  here  I  have  no  means  of  knowing.  That 
they  were  highly  respectable  may  be  inferred  from 
the  fact  that  he  was  always  a  diligent  and  consci- 
entious student,  and  that  he  retained  his  fondness 
for  the  Greek  and  Latin  languages  up  to  the  time 
of  his  death.  Even  the  name  of  the  master  of 
the  seminary  appears  to  have  been  lost,  as  I  can 
nowhere  find  any  mention  of  it.  If  he  had  been 
a  man  of  any  note,  it  would  no  doubt  have  been 
recorded  by  Thompson,  in  his  History  of  Long 
Island,  a  work  remarkable  for  its  research  and 
fidelity. 

In  1804,  young  Mott,  then  about  nineteen  years 


6  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF 

of  age,  enrolled  himself  as  a  private  pupil  in  the 
office  of  his  kinsman,  Dr.  Valentine  Seaman,  of 
New  York,  under  whose  instruction  he  remained 
until  the  spring  of  1807,  when,  after  having  at- 
tended two  full  courses  of  lectures  in  Columbia 
College,  he  was  invested  with  the  honors  of  the 
doctorate  by  that  institution,  then  the  only  school 
of  medicine  in  that  city.  The  thesis  which  he 
presented  on  the  occasion  was  an  Experimental 
Inquiry  into  the  Chemical  and  Medicinal  Proper- 
ties of  the  Statice  Limonium  of  Linnsus,  illustrated 
by  a  beautiful  steel  engraving  of  that  plant,  and 
spread  over  fifty-eight  pages  of  a  closely-printed 
duodecimo  brochure.  The  plant,  vulgarly  known 
as  the  marsh  rosemary,  is  indigenous  to  this  coun- 
try, and  possesses  valuable  astringent  properties, 
which  render  it,  it  is  said,  a  useful  substitute  for 
nutgall  and  tannin  in  the  treatment  of  internal 
hemorrhage,  diarrhoea,  and  hemorrhoids.  The 
dissertation  exhibits  much  labor  and  patient  re- 
search, added  to  accuracy  of  observation. 

The  private  preceptor  of  Dr.  Mott  was  no  or- 
dinary man.  The  son  of  an  eminent  New  York 
merchant,  he  was  a  pupil  at  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania,  in  the  palmy  days  of  Shippen,  Kuhn, 
and  Rush,  published  a  number  of  valuable  papers 
on  medical  and  other  topics,  delivered  lectures  on 
midwifery,  medicine,  and  surgery,  was  one  of  the 
surgeons  of  the  New  York  Hospital,  took  an  act- 


VALENTINE  MOTT,  M.  D.  7 

ive  part  in  the  introduction  of  vaccination  into  the 
United  States,  and  died,  universally  regretted,  in 
1 8 17,  in  the  forty-eighth  year  of  his  age.  In  a 
glovi^ing  eulogy  pronounced  upon  his  character  by 
one  who  knew  him  well  and  intimately,  the  late 
Dr.  John  W.  Francis,  he  is  described  as  an  astute 
physician,  a  laborious  practitioner,  and  a  man  of 
rare  benevolence  and  humanity;  attributes  which 
entitle  him  to  a  high  rank  among  his  contempo- 
raries. It  was  in  the  office  of  Dr.  Seaman  that 
young  Mott  first  became  fully  inspired  with  that 
love  for  his  profession  which  formed  ever  after 
such  a  remarkable  feature  in  his  character.  It 
was  his  first  votive  altar,  upon  which  he  daily 
kindled  the  fire  of  his  ambition. 

His  conduct,  as  a  young  student,  was,  in  the 
highest  degree,  correct  and  exemplary.  He  lost 
no  time  in  listlessness,  or  idle  dalliance;  he  was 
always  at  his  place  in  the  lecture-room;  devoted 
much  of  his  time  and  attention  to  the  cultivation 
of  anatomy  and  surgery ;  was  unusually  popular 
with  his  classmates;  and  was  graduated  with  high 
honor. 

Very  shortly  after  he  received  his  degree,  young 
Mott  repaired  to  London,  to  extend  and  perfect 
his  medical  education.  He  had  no  sooner  arrived 
in  the  British  metropolis  than  he  placed  himself 
under  the  tuition  of  Mr.,  afterward  Sir  Astley 
Cooper,   then   rapidly  approaching  the   zenith  of 


8  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF 

his  fame  as  one  of  the  most  illustrious  surgeons 
that  have  ever  lived.  Abandoning  himself  at  once 
to  the  most  active  exertion,  he  devoted  most  of 
his  time  to  the  study  of  practical  anatomy,  the 
operations  upon  the  cadaver,  visits  to  the  hospitals, 
and  the  prelections  of  the  great  masters  of  the 
healing  art.  Among  the  latter,  by  whose  instruc- 
tions he  more  especially  profited,  may  be  men- 
tioned the  names  of  Cline,  Abernethy,  Haighton, 
and  Charles  Bell,  whose  labors  have  shed  so  much 
lustre  upon  English  surgery,  and  who,  with  Sir 
Astley  Cooper  as  the  common  centre,  form  a  gal- 
axy of  illustrious  savans  such  as  the  world  has  sel- 
dom witnessed  in  such  close  juxtaposition. 

From  London  Mott  went  to  Edinburgh  to 
avail  himself  of  the  advantages  of  the  instruction 
of  Gregory,  Monro,  Duncan,  Home,  Hope,  and 
Thomson.  The  medical  school  of  the  Scotch 
metropolis  enjoyed  then,  as  it  does  now,  a  very 
high  reputation.  The  mantle  of  Cullen,  rendered 
immortal  by  his  teachings  and  his  writings,  had 
fallen  worthily  upon  the  shoulders  of  James  Gre- 
gory, a  man  of  superior  classical  attainments,  cele- 
brated not  less  for  the  purity  and  elegance  of  his 
Latinity  than  his  eloquence  as  a  lecturer,  and  his 
rare  skill  as  a  practitioner.  For  upwards  of  a  third 
of  a  century  he  was  the  most  fashionable  physician 
in  Edinburgh,  whose  word  was  law  both  in  and 
out    of  the    profession.      Alexander    Monro,    the 


VALENTINE  MOTT,  M.  D.  g 

third  of  that  name — a  name  renowned  in  science 
— was  professor  of  anatomy,  and,  although  greatly- 
inferior,  both  as  a  teacher  and  an  author,  to  his 
father  and  grandfather,  labored  hard  to  uphold 
the  character  of  the  University.  Black,  one  of 
the  most  illustrious  philosophers  of  the  age,  the 
Nestor  of  chemical  revolution,  as  he  has  been 
styled  by  Fourcroy,  had  recently  retired  from  the 
chair  of  Chemistry,  and  had  been  succeeded  by 
Home,  who,  in  turn,  had  made  way  for  Hope. 
Duncan,  a  physician  of  extensive  learning,  an  able 
lecturer,  and  a  facile  writer,  was  professor  of  the 
Institutes  of  Medicine.  John  Thomson  occupied 
the  chair  of  Military  Surgery,  for  a  long  time  the 
only  one  of  the  kind  in  any  British  school  of 
medicine.  He  is  principally  recollected  at  the 
present  day  by  his  great  work  on  inflammation,  a 
work  of  vast  labor  and  erudition,  long  the  only 
text-book  on  the  subject  in  Europe  and  in  this 
country. 

Such  were  the  principal  teachers  in  the  Univer- 
sity, while  outside  of  it,  perched  as  it  were  upon 
a  lofty  eminence,  a  fit  resting-place  for  an  eagle, 
there  was  one  in  reality  far  greater,  in  point  of 
talent  and  genius,  than  any  of  these,  a  man  whose 
wonderful  power  of  fascination  gave  him  a  hold 
upon  students  such  as  hardly  any  individual,  either 
before  or  since  his  time,  ever  wielded.  To  rare 
eloquence   and   polemic   ability,  he  added  a   tho- 


lO  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF 

rough  knowledge  of  anatomy,  great  descriptive 
powers,  a  keen  sense  of  sarcasm,  and  unrivalled 
skill  and  daring  as  an  operator;  qualities  which 
rendered  him  one  of  the  most  attractive  and  popu- 
lar of  teachers,  and  one  of  the  most  charming  of 
companions.  This  person  was  John  Bell,  the 
author  of  an  undying  work  on  surgery,  and  the 
brother  of  Charles,  whose  researches  into  the 
functions  of  the  nervous  system  place  his  name  by 
the  side  of  that  of  William  Harvey,  the  discoverer 
of  the  circulation  of  the  blood.* 

Of  Dugald  Stewart,  whose  prelections  on  intel- 
lectual philosophy  he  regularly  attended,  young 
Mott  could  never  speak  with  sufficient  enthusiasm ; 
he  regarded  him,  in  common  with  Edinburgh 
students  in  general,  as  a  man  of  gigantic  mind, 
and  as  one  of  the  most  captivating  and  instructive 
of  teachers,  with  manners  as  simple  as  elegant, 
and  a  voice  almost  as  sweet  as  music  itself.  Of 
his  extraordinary  powers  of  fascination  an  idea 
may  be  formed  by  the  following  description,  from 


■  *  It  is  not  known  with  any  degree  of  certainty  when  Mr.  Bell  ceased 
to  teach  surgery.  Dr.  John  Struthers,  in  his  charming  little  "Historical 
Sketch  of  the  Edinburgh  Anatomical  School,"  lately  published,  states 
that  it  must  have  been  about  the  close  of  the  last  century.  If  so.  Dr. 
Mott  could  not  have  attended  his  lectures.  However  this  may  be,  the 
very  touch  of  the  garments  of  such  a  man  must  have  warmed  his  enthu- 
siasm, and  inspired  him  with  increased  love  for  his  favorite  studies. 
John  Bell  was  the  father  of  Scotch  surgery,  and  the  mantle,  since  so 
gracefully  worn  by  Liston,  Miller,  Syme,  and  Fergusson,  was  unques- 
tionably fashioned  by  his  genius. 


VALENTINE  MOTT,  M.  D.  II 

the  pen  of  one  who  knew  him  intimately,  and 
often  listened  to  his  discourses.  **To  me,"  says 
Lord  Cockburn,  in  his  posthumous  memoirs,  "his 
lectures  were  like  the  opening  of  the  heavens.  I 
felt  that  I  had  a  soul.  His  noble  views,  unfolded 
in  glorious  sentences,  elevated  me  into  a  higher 
world.  I  was  as  much  excited  and  charmed  as  any 
man  of  cultivated  taste  could  be,  who,  after  being 
ignorant  of  their  existence,  was  admitted  to  all 
the  glories  of  Milton,  and  Cicero,  and  Shakspeare. 
This  changed  my  whole  nature.  In  short,  Dugald 
Stewart  was  one  of  the  greatest  of  didactic  orators. 
Had  he  lived  in  ancient  times,  his  memory  would 
have  descended  to  us  as  that  of  one  of  the  finest 
of  the  old  eloquent  sages.  But  his  lot  was  better 
cast.  Flourishing  in  an  age  which  requires  all 
the  dignity  of  morals  to  counteract  the  tendencies 
of  physical  pursuits  and  political  convulsions,  he 
has  exalted  the  character  of  his  country  and  his 
generation.  No  intelligent  pupil  of  his  ever  ceased 
to  respect  philosophy,  or  was  ever  false  to  his  prin- 
ciples, without  feeling  the  crime  aggravated  by 
the  recollection  of  the  morality  that  Dugald  Stew- 
art had  taught  him." 

I  am  unable  to  state  how  long  Dr.  Mott  so- 
journed at  Edinburgh;  he  probably  remained  there 
somewhat  over  a  year.  During  his  residence, 
both  there  and  at  London,  he  formed  many  ac- 
quaintances both  in  and  out  of  the  profession,  to 


12  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF 

which  he  ever  after  looked  back  with  pleasure 
and  satisfaction.  The  letters  which  he  had  taken 
with  him  to  the  two  capitals  secured  him  the 
entree  to  the  best  society,  and  thus  enabled  him  to 
form  a  more  correct  estimate  of  English  and 
Scotch  character.  Of  the  two  cities  he  could  not 
fail  to  award  the  palm  to  Edinburgh.  Its  Uni- 
versity enjoyed  a  world-wide  reputation;  its  Bar 
was  noted  for  its  great  talents  and  attainments; 
and  there  was  a  literary  coterie,  composed  of  Scott, 
Jeffrey,  Sidney  Smith,  and  others,  a  galaxy  of  in- 
tellect, learning,  wit,  and  humor,  which  cast  its 
burning  rays  not  only  over  Europe,  but  Asia  and 
America.  The  very  atmosphere  of  such  a  place 
must  have  exercised  an  important  influence  in 
shaping  the  tastes  and  character  of  the  young 
American  student. 

Having  refreshed  himself  at  these  great  foun- 
tains of  medical  science,  he  returned,  in  the  au- 
tumn of  1809,  after  an  absence  of  upwards  of  two 
years  and  a  half,  to  New  York,  to  enter  upon  the 
active  duties  of  his  profession,  for  which  he  was 
now  so  well  qualified.  Paris,  since  so  celebrated 
as  a  seat  of  medical  learning,  he  did  not  visit  until 
many  years  after,  when  his  fame,  as  a  great  ope- 
rator, had  preceded  him  to  the  French  capital. 


VALENTINE  MOTT,  M.D.  13 


CHAPTER  II. 

SETTLEMENT  IN  NEW  YORK. 

Early  professional  career  in  New  York  —  Rapid  success  in  practice  — 
Delivers  a  private  course  of  lectures — Is  appointed  Professor  of  Sur- 
gery— Rutger's  College — Account  of  his  colleagues. 

Dr.  Mott's  success  in  New  York  was  rapid  and 
brilliant.  His  handsome  person,  his  elegant  man- 
ners, and  his  great  accomplishments  attracted  uni- 
versal attention,  and  he  soon  became  the  centre  of 
an  admiring  circle,  with  the  sobriquet  of  "the 
handsome  young  Quaker  Doctor,"  In  the  fol- 
lowing winter  he  delivered  a  private  course  of  lec- 
tures on  surgery,  and  shortly  after  was  elevated  to 
the  professorship  of  surgery  in  his  alma  mater,  an 
office  which  he  held  until  Columbia  College  was 
merged  in  the  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons, 
when  he  was  appointed  to  the  same  chair  with 
Wright  Post,  Hosack,  Mitchill,  Macneven,  and 
Francis,  all  men  of  distinguished  talent,  as  his  col- 
leagues. He  continued  in  this  institution,  lec- 
turing with  marked  ability  to  rapidly  increasing 
classes,  until  1826,  when,  in  consequence  of  some 
tyrannical  acts  of  the  Trustees,  the  Faculty  with- 
drew in  a  body. 

A  new  school  was  immediately  formed  by  the 


14  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF 

retiring  professors,  under  the  auspices  of  Rutger's 
College,  at  New  Brunswick,  New  Jersey.  The 
organization  was  completed  by  the  introduction 
of  Dr.  John  D.  Godman  into  the  anatomical 
chair,  and  Dr.  John  Griscom  into  the  chemical. 
To  conceive  of  a  more  able  corps  of  teachers  than 
this  would  be  difficult.  There  certainly  was  not, 
at  that  time,  any  superior  to  it,  whether  we  regard 
the  talents  of  its  members,  their  scientific  and  lite- 
rary attainments,  or  their  ability  and  eloquence  as 
lecturers.  The  school,  after  a  prosperous  career 
of  five  years,  during  a  part  of  which  it  was  con- 
nected with  the  Geneva  College  of  Western  New 
York,  was  compelled  to  close  its  doors  on  account 
of  some  technical  illegality  respecting  its  power 
of  conferring  degrees. 

Of  the  men  who  were  associated  with  Dr.  Mott 
in  founding  the  new  college  a  few  passing  remi- 
niscences will  not  be  without  interest.  They 
were  all  physicians  of  note,  and  they  have  all 
gone  to  "that  undiscovered  country  from  whose 
bourne  no  traveller  returns." 

Dr.  David  Hosack,  the  eldest  member  of  the 
Faculty,  adorned  the  chair  of  medicine,  and  never 
was  a  professor's  gown  worn  with  greater  grace  or 
dignity.  He  was  descended  from  a  Scotch  family, 
and  received  his  literary  education  at  Princeton 
College  during  the  Presidency  of  the  renowned 
Dr.  Witherspoon,  one  of  the  signers  of  the  De- 


VALENTINE  MOTT,  M.  D.  1 5 

claration  of  Independence.      Endowed  by  nature 
with  a  noble  presence  and  brilliant  talents,  he  was 
an  elegant  lecturer,  an  able  writer,  and  a  finished 
scholar.    His  reputation,  at  the  period  here  referred 
to,  was  of  the  highest  order,  and  he  was  almost 
universally  regarded,  for  upwards  of  a  quarter  of  a 
century  before  his  death,  as  the  fittest  person  in 
New  York  to  be  consulted  in  all  medical  cases  of 
difficulty  or  danger.     He  had  a  remarkably  clear, 
almost  intuitive,  perception  of  the  nature  and  seat 
of  disease,  great  adroitness  in  diagnosis,  extraordi- 
nary fertility  and  readiness  in  the  application  of 
remedies,  and  a  rare   faculty  of  inspiring  his  pa- 
tients with  confidence  in  his  skill.     As  a  lecturer, 
he   possessed   eloquence,   and    a    manner   at   once 
dignified  and  impressive,  with  great  command  of 
language,  and  a  ready  power  of  utterance,  which 
rendered    him    eminently    attractive    to    students. 
He   had,  early  in  life,   enjoyed  the  advantages  of 
foreign  study  and  travel,  and  was  elected  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Royal  Society  of  London  soon  after  his 
entrance  into  the  profession,  in  consideration  ot 
an  able  paper  which   he   had   published   a   short 
time  previously  on  vision.      His  writings,   which 
were  chiefly  medical,  elicited  an  unusual  share  of 
criticism  both  at  home  and  abroad;   and  although 
replete  with   interest,   they   abound   too   much   in 
hypothesis  and  speculation  to  be  enduring.     The 
work   upon   which   his   fame,   as   an   author,   will 


1 6  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF 

mainly  rest,  is  his  Life  of  De  Witt  Clinton,  which 
was  composed  with  marked  ability,  and  forms  a 
valuable  addition  to  the  literature  of  the  country. 
Dr.  Hosack  died  of  apoplexy  in  1835,  in  the  sixty- 
seventh  year  of  his  age,  soon  after  the  great  fire 
in  New  York,  in  which  he  sustained  heavy  pecu- 
niary losses,  which,  it  has  been  said,  hastened  his 
demise. 

Dr.  John  W.  Francis,  a  name  ever  to  be  spoken 
with  reverence  and  affection,  was  of  German  de- 
scent, and  born  at  New  York,  in  1789,  four  years 
later  than  Dr.  Mott,  who,  nevertheless,  survived 
him.  Their  active  lives  ran  parallel  with  each 
other.  For  fifty  years  they  walked  the  same 
streets,  entered  the  same  dwellings,  and  often  felt 
the  same  pulse.  Their  friendship,  sincere,  cor- 
dial, and  uninterrupted,  was  marked  by  a  thousand 
acts  of  courtesy  and  kindness.  The  beautiful  eu- 
logy which  Mott  pronounced  upon  his  character 
before  the  New  York  Academy  of  Medicine, 
shortly  after  his  decease,  in  May,  1861,  is  a  tribute 
of  the  deepest  tenderness  and  devotion,  as  rare  as 
it  is  touching.  He  had  watched  the  career  of 
Francis  from  an  early  period  of  his  life,  had  often 
listened  to  the  story  of  his  manly  struggles  for  an 
education,  had  seen  him  rise  to  eminence  and 
usefulness  as  a  practitioner  and  a  teacher  of  an 
important  branch  of  medical  science,  and  for  many 
years  had  stood  with  him  side  by  side  as  it  were 


VALENTINE  MOTT,  M.  D.  17 

as  a  colleague  in  the  lecture-room.  He  felt,  as  he 
gave  utterance  to  his  melancholy  strains,  that  he 
had  lost  a  well-tried  and  faithful  friend;  and  the 
sadness  which  he  experienced  on  the  occasion  was 
probably  not  a  little  heightened  by  the  conviction 
that,  in  the  course  of  natural  events,  he  must  soon 
follow  him.  "In  peaceful  sorrow,"  says  the  ven- 
erable surgeon,  "there  is  a  kind  of  joy.  The  hu- 
man heart  bereaved  finds  gratification  in  mourning 
over  its  loss.  Its  anguish  is  assuaged  by  indulging 
in  gentle  melancholy.  *  Strike  the  harp  in  my 
hall,'  exclaims  the  mighty  Fingal  to  the  bard — 
*  strike  the  harp  in  my  hall,  and  let  Fingal  hear 
the  song.  Pleasant  is  the  joy  of  grief.  It  is  like 
the  shower  of  spring  when  it  softens  the  branch 
of  the  oak,  and  the  young  leaf  lifts  its  head. ' " 

The  character  of  Francis  may  be  summed  up 
in  a  few  words.  With  a  capacious  brain  and  a 
lofty  forehead,  the  dome  of  the  soul,  he  had  a 
high  order  of  intellect;  his  mind  was  stored  with 
the  riches  of  knowledge ;  he  was  a  profound 
thinker,  an  eloquent  lecturer,  a  good  writer,  a 
sagacious,  ready  practitioner,  a  charming  com- 
panion, sparkling  with  wit  and  humor,  a  kind- 
hearted  man,  generous  to  a  fault,  one  who  valued 
learning  and  despised  everything  that  was  sordid 
and  contemptible. 

William  J.  Macneven,  who  occupied  the  chair 
of  materia  medica,  was  a  native  of  Ireland,  but, 
2 


1 8  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF 

in  1805,  with  a  number  of  his  countrymen,  sought 
an  asylum  in  the  United  States  after  the  unsuc- 
cessful attempt  of  Robert  Emmet  and  his  asso- 
ciates to  shake  off  the  British  yoke  which  had  so 
long  and  so  heavily  oppressed  them.  He  was  a 
graceful  lecturer,  an  accomplished  classical  scho- 
lar, an  ardent  patriot,  and  an  upright,  estimable 
man.  He  was  the  author  of  a  number  of  scien- 
tific papers  and  political  tracts,  was  one  of  the  edi- 
tors of  the  "New  York  Medical  and  Philosophical 
Journal,"  was  a  great  lover  of  books,  and  spoke,  it 
is  asserted,  German  and  French  with  as  much 
fluency  as  English.  He  expired  at  New  York  on 
the  1 2th  of  July,  1841,  in  the  eightieth  year  of 
his  age,  universally  regretted  by  all  who  knew 
him. 

Dr.  John  D.  Godman,  a  native  of  Maryland, 
and  early  in  life  a  printer  by  occupation,  was 
Mott's  associate  in  the  new  college  enterprise  only 
for  two  sessions.  Long  before  the  termination  of 
the  second  course  of  lectures  it  was  evident  that  the 
labor  was  too  severe  for  the  endurance  of  his  bodily 
powers,  and  he  was  accordingly  obliged  to  resign 
his  chair,  and  to  seek  relaxation  and  health  in  a 
more  genial  climate.  He  spent  several  months  in 
the  West  Indies,  but  without  any  material  benefit, 
and  finally,  on  his  return,  settled  at  Germantown, 
Pennsylvania,  where,  under  the  hospitable  roof  of 
a  kind  friend,  he  eked  out  the  remnant  of  his  days. 


VALENTINE  MOTT,  M.  D.  1 9 

Godman  was  emphatically  a  child  of  genius, 
with  an  astonishing  aptitude  for  the  acquisition  of 
knowledge,  acute  penetration,  and  great  readiness 
as  a  writer  and  speaker.  Commencing  his  studies 
under  unusual  difficulties,  he,  nevertheless,  made 
the  most  extraordinary  progress,  and  early  achieved 
a  most  commanding  reputation,  especially  as  a 
lecturer,  naturalist,  and  author.  He  was  by  far 
the  most  brilliant  and  popular  teacher  of  anatomy 
in  his  day  in  this  country.  As  a  neat  and  rapid 
dissector  he  probably  never  had  an  equal  any- 
where. Notwithstanding,  however,  his  skill  in 
the  use  of  the  scalpel,  he  signally  failed  as  an 
operator,  for  the  same  reason,  perhaps,  as  the  illus- 
trious Albert  von  Haller,  who  taught  surgery  for 
sixteen  years,  but  never  performed  an  operation 
upon  the  living  subject  for  fear,  as  he  often  avowed, 
of  giving  pain.  Both  lacked  courage  and  decision, 
qualities  which,  unless  innate,  can  only  be  acquired 
by  constant  familiarity  with  the  sight  of  blood  and 
the  screams  of  the  patient. 

As  a  linguist,  also,  Godman  possessed  great 
powers;  for  he  had  not  only  an  excellent  acquaint- 
ance with  Greek  and  Latin,  but  an  intimate  know- 
ledge of  the  French,  German,  Dutch,  and  Italian. 
He  had,  indeed,  a  most  happy  faculty  of  sur- 
mounting obstacles;  for,  to  genius  of  a  high  order 
he  added  patience,  and  to  patience  industry,  and 
to  industry  perseverance;  to  all,  and  above  all,  a 


20  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF 

great  love  for  his  species,  and  an  unbounded  vene- 
ration for  Deity,  whom  he  saw  and  worshipped  in 
all  His  works.  Death  snatched  him  away  at  the 
early  age  of  thirty-seven,  the  victim  of  poverty 
and  pulmonary  consumption,  under  which  he  had 
nobly  struggled  for  many  years,  working  literally 
for  his  daily  subsistence  up  to  the  last  hour  of  his 
precious  life.  Although  he  died  so  young,  the 
fame  of  his  genius  had  spread  over  this  entire  con- 
tinent, at  a  time  when  fame  travelled  much  more 
slowly  than  she  does  now;  and  the  announcement 
of  his  demise  caused  universal  grief  among  our 
profession  as  well  as  among  the  naturalists  of 
America  and  Europe. 

The  chair  vacated  by  the  lamented  Godman 
was  filled,  in  1828,  by  Dr.  George  Bushe,  an  Irish 
gentleman,  at  the  time  of  his  appointment  a  sur- 
geon in  the  British  army.  He  remained  attached 
to  the  College  until  its  close  in  1832.  Tall  and 
erect  in  person,  with  a  light  complexion  and  a 
commanding  presence,  he  was  one  of  the  best 
lecturers  I  have  ever  heard,  learned,  fluent,  and 
enthusiastic ;  a  bold,  dashing  operator,  and  the 
author  of  a  treatise  on  the  Diseases,  Injuries,  and 
Malformations  of  the  Rectum,  long  without  a 
rival  in  the  English  language.  His  death  was 
occasioned  by  phthisis,  in  1837,  before  he  had 
reached  the  full  meridian  of  his  life. 

John  Griscom,  the  Professor  of  Chemistry,  the 


VALENTINE  MOTT,  M.  D.  21 

descendant  of  a  respectable  Quaker  family,  was  a 
native  of  New  Jersey,  where  he  was  born  in  1774. 
Although  his  early  education  had  been  much 
neglected,  yet,  by  indomitable  industry  and  perse- 
verance, he  surmounted  every  obstacle  to  improve- 
ment, and  eventually  achieved  a  high  scientific  and 
literary  reputation.  For  nearly  a  third  of  a  cen- 
tury he  swayed  the  chemical  sceptre  of  New  York. 
To  ease  of  elocution,  he  added  grace  and  sim- 
plicity of  manner,  deliberate  utterance,  exact  dic- 
tion, and  a  thorough  acquaintance  with  his  subject, 
which  made  him  one  of  the  most  charming  and 
attractive  of  teachers.  His  public  lectures  were 
attended  by  many  of  the  most  fashionable  and 
distinguished  citizens ;  and  it  has  been  asserted 
that  he  did  more  to  inspire  and  diffuse  a  taste  for 
the  popular  study  of  chemistry  than  any  other 
man  in  the  country.  He  was  a  devoted  friend  of 
general  education,  carried  on  an  extensive  corre- 
spondence with  scientific  and  benevolent  men  both 
at  home  and  abroad,  published  numerous  papers 
in  the  medical  and  philosophical  journals  of  his 
time,  and  left  a  valuable  and  instructive  work  on 
foreign  travel,  in  two  volumes.  Dr.  Griscom  died 
in  1852,  at  the  ripe  age  of  78  years. 

After  the  downfall  of  Rutger's  Medical  College 
Dr.  Mott  resumed  his  connection  with  the  Col- 
lege of  Physicians  and  Surgeons  as  Professor  of 
Operative  Surgery  with  Surgical  and  Pathological 


22  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF 

Anatomy,  the  Principles  and  Practice  of  Surgery 
being  taught  by  Dr.  Alexander  H.  Stevens.  He 
remained  in  the  school  until  1835,  when  he  re- 
signed in  consequence  of  ill  health  and  his  pro- 
jected visit  to  Europe. 

Upon  the  establishment  of  the  Medical  Depart- 
ment of  the  University  of  the  City  of  New  York, 
in  1840,  he  was  unanimously  elected  Professor  of 
Surgery  and  President  of  the  Medical  Faculty. 
This  honor  was  conferred  upon  him  while  abroad, 
and  was  the  more  flattering  to  his  feelings  because 
it  was  unsolicited.  All  his  colleagues  were  gen- 
tlemen who,  like  himself,  either  already  enjoyed 
great  celebrity  as  teachers,  or  soon  became  distin- 
guished as  such.  The  names  of  Granville  Sharp 
Pattison,  John  Revere,  Martyn  Paine,  John  W. 
Draper,  and  Gunning  S.  Bedford,  are  all  inscribed 
upon  the  scroll  of  fame.  Under  the  auspices  of 
this  Faculty  the  school  rapidly  rose  into  notice, 
with  classes  ranging  annually  from  350  to  400 
pupils,  representing  all  the  different  States  of  the 
Union  as  well  as  many  foreign  countries.  The 
school  was  a  complete  success.  Dr.  Mott  retained 
his  connection  with  it  until  1850,  when  he  re- 
signed, and  went  to  Europe.  On  his  return  in 
the  following  autumn  he  entered  the  College  of 
Physicians  and  Surgeons  as  Professor  of  Operative 
Surgery  and  Surgical  Anatomy,  a  position  which 
was  subsequently  abandoned  for  the  office  of  Eme- 


VALENTINE  MOTT,  M.  D.  23 

ritus-Professor  of  Surgery  in  the  University,  which 
he  held  up  to  the  time  of  his  death  in  1865.  Of 
the  causes  which  led  to  these  various  changes,  and 
which  must  have  occasioned  him  no  little  vexation 
and  annoyance,  it  is  not  necessary  here  to  speak. 
It  is  sufficient  to  observe  that  they  we're  such  as 
he  could  not  control,  and  which  reflect  no  discre- 
dit upon  him,  in  any  manner,  either  as  a  gentleman 
or  as  a  professor.  Those  who  are  acquainted  with 
the  history  of  medical  institutions  in  this  country 
know  how  fluctuating  is  their  character,  and  what 
trivial  causes  often  effect  their  prosperity  and  even 
their  downfall  in  a  single  day.  Founded,  for  the 
most  part,  by  private  enterprise,  they,  unfortunately, 
too  often  contain,  at  their  very  inception,  the  seed 
of  their  own  decay  and  ultimate  destruction.  In 
a  republican  country,  like  ours,  where  the  masses 
and  not  the  Government  are  the  rulers,  all  institu- 
tions, literary,  medical,  and  scientific,  are,  in  gen- 
eral, short-lived. 


24  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF 


CHAPTER  III. 

FOREIGN  TRAVELS. 

Visits  Europe — Interview  with  Sir  Astley  Cooper — Sojourn  at  Paris — 
French  Surgeons  —  Graefe  and  DiefFenbach — Athens  —  Epidaurus  — 
Constantinople. 

In  1835,  ill-health,  as  already  intimated,  com- 
pelled Dr.  Mott,  exhausted  by  unremitting  labor, 
to  relinquish  for  a  time  his  practice,  and  to  seek 
repose  and  relaxation  in  a  foreign  country.  He 
had  now  been  engaged  in  the  active  duties  of  his 
profession  for  nearly  thirty  years,  during  which  he 
had  earned  a  world-wide  reputation  as  one  of  the 
first  surgeons  of  the  age.  Previously  to  his  de- 
parture, his  medical  friends,  with  Hosack,  Francis, 
Macneven,  Delafield,  and  other  distinguished  con- 
freres at  their  head,  tendered  him  a  public  dinner, 
as  a  token  of  their  profound  appreciation  of  his 
character,  and  of  their  high  sense  of  the  services 
he  had  rendered  to  surgical  science. 

Upwards  of  a  quarter  of  a  century  had  elapsed 
since,  as  a  pupil  of  medicine,  he  had  bid  adieu  to 
England,  and  now  his  first  impulse,  upon  touching 
its  shores,  was  to  hasten  to  London,  to  greet  his 
old  friend  and  preceptor.  Sir  Astley  Cooper,  the 
Nestor  of  British  surgery.     A  meeting  between 


VALENTINE  MOTT,  M.  D.  25 

two  such  men  is  an  unusual  occurrence.  The 
pupil  had  long  ago  more  than  realized  the  most 
sanguine  expectations  of  his  illustrious  *  master. 
Each  had  the  proud  satisfaction  of  knowing  that 
he  was  the  accredited  head  of  the  surgeons  of  the 
age  in  his  own  country.  Cooper,  although  nearly 
seventy  years  old,  still  retained  his  early  vigor  and 
enthusiasm;  he  loved  his  profession  with  all  the 
ardor  of  a  devotee,  and  he  daily,  even  at  that  pe- 
riod of  life,  when  most  men  require  repose,  per- 
formed an  amount  of  labor  that  would  have  put 
to  shame  many  of  his  younger  brethren,  less  zeal- 
ous and  ambitious  than  himself.  His  whole  career 
was  one  series  of  brilliant  successes.  The  son  of 
a  poor  but  respectable  country  clergyman  in  Nor- 
folk, England,  he  studied  medicine  in  London, 
and  by  his  industry,  talent,  and  correct  deport- 
ment, rapidly  attained  to  eminence.  He  was  ap- 
pointed at  an  early  age  Surgeon  to  Guy*s  and  St. 
Thomas'  Hospitals,  enjoyed  for  many  years  the 
most  lucrative  and  aristocratic  practice  in  London, 
and  was  successively  Surgeon  to  three  sovereigns, 
George  IV.,  William  IV.,  and  Queen  Victoria. 
His  income  from  his  business  alone  is  said  to  have 
netted  in  one  single  year  £23,000.  He  left  an 
enormous  estate,  the  result  of  his  unaided  exertion. 
He  was  the  first  to  ligate  the  aorta  and  the  com- 
mon carotid  artery  for  the  cure  of  aneurism;  and 
he  has  bequeathed  to  posterity  numerous  mono- 


26  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF 

graphs  on  surgery,  works  of  vast  personal  research, 
of  careful  clinical  observation,  and  of  inestimable 
practical  value. 

Having  spent  some  weeks  in  the  British  metro- 
polis, in  the  midst  of  much  that  was  interesting 
and  agreeable,  as  well  as  instructive.  Dr.  Mott  suc- 
cessively visited  Scotland,  Ireland,  France,  Bel- 
gium, Switzerland,  Italy,  and  Germany,  and,  after 
an  absence  of  sixteen  months,  returned  to  the 
United  States,  with  his  health,  as  he  had  supposed, 
permanently  reinstated.  In  this,  however,  he  was 
disappointed,  and  he,  therefore,  after  a  brief  so- 
journ, again  embarked  for  Europe,  determined  to 
extend  his  travels  into  Greece,  Egypt,  Turkey, 
and  Asia  Minor.  Establishing  his  head-quarters 
at  Paris,  he  made  annual  excursions  into  different 
countries,  and  finally  bid  adieu  to  Europe  in  1841, 
completely  reinvigorated  in  mind  and  body.  In 
every  place  he  visited  he  met  with  a  reception 
worthy  of  his  exalted  reputation.  This  courtesy 
was  by  no  means  confined  to  the  members  of  his 
own  profession.  Men  of  the  highest  renown  in 
every  walk  of  life,  and  even  crowned  heads,  vied 
with  each  other  to  do  him  homage. 

At  Paris,  where  he  was  most  cordially  received 
by  the  whole  medical  fraternity,  he  was  treated 
with  special  courtesy  and  kindness  by  Louis  Phi- 
lippe and  his  family.  Here  he  frequently  saw 
Baron  Larrey,  the  father  of  modern  military  sur- 


VALENTINE  MOTT,  M.  D.  27 

gery,  the  hero  of  a  hundred  battles,  the  friend  and 
companion  of  Napoleon  during  all  his  memorable 
campaigns  until  the  sun  of  that  great  and  wonder- 
ful man  set  forever  on  the  field  of  Waterloo. 
The  frosts  of  nearly  eighty  winters  had  dimmed 
his  eye,  but  in  no  degree  diminished  his  venera- 
tion and  enthusiasm  for  his  sovereign,  who  always 
spoke  of  him  as  the  most  honest  and  virtuous  man 
he  had  ever  known.  "If  the  army,"  said  Napo- 
leon, **ever  erect  a  monument  of  gratitude,  it 
should  be  to  Larrey."  In  his  will  he  left  him 
100,000  francs.  No  surgeon,  since  the  days  of 
Good  Old  Ambrose  Pare,  had  so  completely  en- 
joyed the  love  and  confidence  of  an  army  as  Lar- 
rey. He  was  emphatically  the  soldier's  idol;  and 
the  Emperor  himself,  popular  as  he  was,  hardly 
exercised  as  unbounded  an  influence  in  the  camp 
as  this  great  surgeon  in  the  hospital.  At  the  pe- 
riod of  Dr.  Mott's  visit,  Larrey  was  Surgeon-in- 
Chief  to  that  noble  institution,  the  Hospital  for 
Invalids,  the  receptacle  of  at  least  4000  men  dis- 
abled in  war.  After  stating  that  he  had  repeatedly 
accompanied  him  through  the  wards  of  this  great 
asylum,  an  honor  alike  to  France  and  to  humanity, 
he  remarks:  "It  was  delightful  to  behold  the 
almost  religious  veneration  with  which  his  old 
companions  in  arms  received  and  welcomed  him 
as  he  passed  from  bed  to  bed.  The  eyes  of  these 
decrepit  men  would  glisten  with  joy  at  his  ap- 


28  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF 

proach ;  and,  if  sad  from  suffering,  he  would  cheer 
their  drooping  spirits  by  recounting  to  them  some 
memorable  victory  in  which  they  had  both  parti- 
cipated. I  have  heard  him  sound  in  their  ears 
the  magic  words,  Lodi,  Marengo,  and  Austerlitz, 
and  Mount  Tabor!  and  the  effect  was  electric  and 
wonderful.  It  was  like  the  neighing  of  the  war- 
horse  at  the  sound  of  the  trumpet." 

Larrey  has  left  behind  him  precious  works,  the 
record  of  his  numerous  observations  and  opera- 
tions in  the  field  and  in  the  hospital;  works  of 
transcendent  excellence,  written  with  the  pen  of  a 
master,  combining  solidity  of  information  with 
the  charm  and  interest  of  a  romance.  Of  the 
unexampled  opportunities  which  he  enjoyed  for 
the  practical  exercise  of  military  surgery  a  faint 
idea  may  be  formed  when  it  is  stated  that,  after 
the  battle  of  Austerlitz,  he  performed  more  than 
two  hundred  operations,  never  relaxing  his  efforts 
to  relieve  the  wounded  until  his  knife  fell  power- 
less from  his  hand.  At  Wagram  he  removed 
fourteen  arms  at  the  shoulder-joint.  It  reflects 
no  little  credit  upon  the  good  taste  and  intelligence 
of  the  American  profession  that  all  the  works  of 
this  great  surgeon  have  been  translated  into  the 
English  language  by  American  physicians,  the  late 
Professor  Wilmot  Hall,  of  Baltimore,  having  led 
the  way  in  this  commendable  enterprise. 

Baron  Larrey  died  in  July,  1842.     Pariset,  soon 


VALENTINE  MOTT,  M.  D.  29 

after  his  death,  pronounced  a  glowing  eulogy  upon 
his  life  and  character  before  the  Royal  Academy 
of  Medicine,  and  two  statues  have  since  been 
raised  to  him,  one  of  them  in  the  court  of  the 
Val  de  Grace  Hospital,  the  scene  of  the  labors  of 
his  declining  years.  The  life  of  Larrey  is  full  of 
romance,  and  affords  a  sublime  subject  for  the 
study  of  the  philosopher,  the  poet,  the  painter, 
and  the  historian. 

During  his  sojourn  in  the  French  capital.  Dr. 
Mott  spent  much  of  his  time  in  the  great  hospi- 
tals there,  witnessing  the  more  striking  cases  of 
diseases  and  accidents,  and  carefully  investigating 
everything  that  presented  the  slightest  novelty, 
especially  in  operative  surgery,  his  own  favorite 
pursuit.  He  was  particularly  interested  in  the 
study  of  orthopoedic  surgery,  then  recently  founded 
by  Stromeyer,  and  afterwards  so  much  improved 
by  Guerin,  Scoutetten,  and  other  French  tenoto- 
mists.  As  a  consequence  of  this  study  he  intended, 
shortly  after  his  return  from  Europe,  to  open  an 
institution  for  the  treatment  of  this  class  of  de- 
formities at  Bloomingdale ;  but  was  finally  induced, 
through  the  persuasion  of  his  friends,  to  abandon 
the  project,  principally  on  the  ground  that  it  would 
not  be  popular  with  the  profession ! 

At  the  Neckar  Hospital,  as  well  as  in  the  social 
circle,  he  often  met  with  Mons.  Civiale,  the  ori- 
ginator of  lithotripsy,  one  of  the  greatest  triumphs 


30 


THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF 


of  science  and  humanity  ever  achieved  by  man. 
Without  a  rival  in  his  particular  department,  it  is 
impossible,  says  Mott,  for  any  one  to  imagine 
the  highly  finished  style  of  his  manipulations.  In 
delicacy  of  tact  and  adroitness  of  execution  he 
never  had  an  equal.  Added  to  all  this,  he  was  one 
of  the  most  amiable  and  gentle  of  men,  abounding 
in  all  the  charities  that  adorn  our  nature. 

From  Velpeau,  with  whom  he  had  long  been 
in  correspondence,  and  who,  only  a  few  months 
ago,  died  at  an  advanced  age,  full  of  honor  and 
fame,  he  received  more  than  ordinary  attention 
and  courtesy.  "No  man,"  he  says,  "could  have 
treated  a  brother  more  kindly  and  cordially  than 
he  did  me."  After  speaking  of  him  as  a  dexterous 
operator,  an  admirable  teacher,  and  a  profound 
anatomist,  he  bestows  upon  him  the  high  compli- 
ment of  having  been  by  far  the  most  scientific 
and  best  read  surgeon  he  had  ever  met  with.  Of 
such  a  man  France  has  just  reason  to  be  proud. 
From  the  most  humble  beginning,  he  had  risen, 
by  the  force  of  industry  and  genius,  to  the  most 
exalted  rank  in  his  profession.  His  elaborate  work 
on  operative  surgery  affords  an  exhibition  of  learn- 
ing, and  a  familiarity  with  the  history  of  medical 
literature  without  a  parallel  in  any  language,  either 
in  ancient  or  modern  times.  His  treatises  on 
Midwifery,  on  Topographical  Anatomy,  and  on 
the  Diseases  of  the  Mammary  Gland,  the  first  two 


VALENTINE  MOTT,  M.  D.  3 1 

published  soon  after  he  entered  upon  his  brilliant 
career,  are  all  highly  meritorious  productions,  des- 
tined to  associate  their  author's  name  with  the 
most  distinguished  writers  of  the  age,  and  to  con- 
fer upon  it  lasting  fame. 

Nothing  impressed  Dr.  Mott,  in  his  visits  to 
the  French  hospitals,  more  forcibly  or  unpleasantly 
than  the  bad  results  of  the  operations  in  the  hands 
of  the  different  surgeons,  even  the  most  dexterous 
and  best  educated.  From  what  he  saw  he  was 
convinced  that  they  were  mainly  due  to  the  mise- 
rable system  of  ventilation  in  the  wards  of  these 
establishments,  and  to  a  want  of  proper  attention 
to  the  after-treatment,  especially  to  an  insufficiency 
of  nutritious  food  and  stimulants  at  a  time  when 
the  system  was  exhausted  by  irritation  and  suppu- 
ration. As  able  diagnosticians  and  brilliant  ope- 
rators, he  considered  the  surgeons  of  Paris  as 
unequalled,  but  as  practitioners,  with  a  few  hon- 
orable exceptions,  the  very  worst  he  had  ever  seen; 
an  opinion  amply  confirmed  by  the  judgment  and 
experience  of  more  recent  observers. 

At  Berlin,  Dr.  Mott  had  anticipated  great  plea- 
sure from  meeting  with  the  celebrated  surgeon, 
Charles  Ferdinand  von  Graefe,  who  was  the  first 
to  repeat  the  ligation  of  the  innominate  artery, 
three  years  after  he  himself  had  performed  the 
operation.      His    disappointment    may   be    better 


32 


THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF 


imagined  than  described  when  he  learned  that  he 
was  absent  from  the  city  on  account  of  ill  health. 
The  career  of  Von  Graefe,  as  a  surgeon,  was,  in 
every  respect,  most  brilliant.  He  enjoyed  in  Prus- 
sia the  same  high  consideration  as  Mott  in  the 
United  States,  Dupuytren  in  France,  and  Sir  Astley 
Cooper  in  Great  Britain.  Born  at  Warsaw  in 
1787,  two  years  after  our  own  great  countryman, 
he  studied  medicine  at  Halle  and  Leipzig,  took 
his  degree  in  1807,  entered  the  military  service  in. 
181 1,  and  was  appointed  Surgeon-in-Chief  of  the 
Prussian  army  in  1822.  He  finally  settled  at  Ber- 
lin as  Professor  of  Surgery  and  Director  of  the 
Ophthalmic  Clinic  in  the  famous  University  of 
that  city.  He  invented  several  valuable  instru- 
ments, perfected  rhinoplasty,  and  published  a  num- 
ber of  excellent  monographs  on  his  favorite  branch 
of  science,  besides  editing,  conjointly  with  the 
illustrious  Von  Walther,  from  18 19  to  1828,  a 
journal  of  Surgery  and  Ophthalmology,  a  period- 
ical of  extraordinary  celebrity.  His  labors  in 
rhinoplasty  created  a  new  era  in  reconstructive 
surgery  in  his  own  country,  where  the  operation 
is  universally  known  as  the  German  method.  Stu- 
dents flocked  to  him  from  all  parts  of  the  world 
to  attend  his  lectures,  and  his  fame  was  so  great 
that  when,  late  in  life,  he  visited  England,  he  was 
received  with  distinguished  courtesy  by  the  British 
sovereign.     He  died  in  July,  1840,  leaving,  as  the 


VALENTINE  MOTT,  M.  D.  33 

result  of  his  personal  exertion  and  prudence,  an 
estate  valued  at  $3,000,000. 

From  Johann  Friedrich  Dieffenbach,  the  towns- 
man of  Von  Graefe,  not  less  renowned  for  his  skill 
in  rhinoplasty  than  as  the  author  of  the  brilliant 
operation  for  the  cure  of  strabismus.  Dr.  Mott 
received  the  most  devoted  consideration.  He  was 
particularly  struck,  during  one  of  his  visits  to  the 
great  Charity  Hospital,  with  the  number  and  va- 
riety of  his  new  noses,  and  lost  in  surprise  at  his 
marvellous  dexterity  as  an  operator.  Dieffenbach 
was,  in  truth,  a  wonderful  personage,  a  most  daring, 
dashing  surgeon,  a  fascinating  lecturer,  a  good 
writer,  a  fast  man,  a  roue,  and  a  spendthrift!  He 
had  a  boundless  European  fame.  His  name  was 
as  familiar  in  Paris  as  in  Berlin.  Few  men  ever 
did  so  great  an  amount  of  delicate  surgery  as  he. 
He  was  nose-maker  for  several  kingdoms,  and  no 
one  in  his  day  probably  ever  operated  so  well  or 
so  frequently  for  the  cure  of  cleft-palate.  He 
had  published  one  large  volume  of  a  great  work 
on  operative  surgery,  and  partly  composed  the 
second,  when  death  overtook  him  in  the  midst  of 
a  clinical  discourse,  surrounded  by  a  crowd  of  ad- 
miring pupils.  He  had  a  presentiment  that  he 
should  not  live  to  complete  his  task.  "Ich  erlebe 
es  doch  nicht  dass  es  fertig  wird."  He.  had  often 
expressed  a  wish  that  he  might  die  suddenly.  His 
saying  was:   "nur  nicht  sterben — das  ist  ein  qual- 

3 


34 


THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF 


voller  Kampf ;  aber  Tod  ist  schon !"  Death  gra- 
tified his  wishes.  The  first  volume  of  the  work 
appeared  in  1845;   ^^^  second  three  years  later. 

In  Greece,  the  land  of  philosophy,  poetry,  lite- 
rature, oratory,  painting,  sculpture,  architecture, 
military  glory,  and  commercial  renown.  Dr.  Mott 
experienced  the  delight  naturally  incident  to  a 
journey  through  that  classic  and  romantic  country. 
Taking  Athens  as  the  starting-point,  he  penetrated 
deeply  into  the  interior,  and  explored  every  object 
of  interest  and  importance  with  an  eye  keenly 
alive  to  the  beautiful  and  sublime  in  nature  and  in 
art.  Nothing,  indeed,  seems  to  have  escaped  his 
observation.  Mountain  and  valley,  river,  lake,  and 
cavern,  the  tombs  of  heroes,  physicians,  and  phi- 
losophers, monuments  of  art,  soil,  climate,  agri- 
culture, men,  and  animals,  alike  attracted  his  atten- 
tion, and  engaged  the  graphic  powers  of  his  pen. 
He  witnessed  with  sorrow  the  wretched  condition 
of  the  Greeks,  especially  the  adult  portion  of  the 
population,  who  seemed  to  be  sunk  too  low  in  all 
the  vices  of  Oriental  indolence  ever  to  be  regene- 
rated. "In  this  opinion,"  he  remarks,  "I  have 
not  been  precipitate  or  hasty.  It  has  not  been 
drawn  from  a  survey  of  the  perfumed  Athenian 
or  Attican;  but  I  have  had  an  opportunity  of  see- 
ing the  Theban  in  his  mountain  and  his  capital, 
the  Lebadean  in  his  capital  and  on  his  beautiful 
plain,  the  Delphian   about   his  rugged    cliffs,   and 


VALENTINE  MOTT,  M.  D.  3^ 

the  inhabitant  of  the  mighty  snow-topped  Par- 
nassus. I  have  viewed  the  whole  line,  from  the 
long  stretch  of  Mount  Helicon  to  near  the  highest 
summit  of  Parnassus,  from  Acro-Corinth  to  the 
plains  of  Argos  in  the  Morea,  and  but  one  strong 
feature  reigns  through  the  whole."  A  gloom  of 
midnight  darkness  everywhere  shrouded  this  once 
fairy  land  of  the  hero  and  the  poet. 

At  Athens,  where  he  was  warmly  welcomed  by 
King  Otho  and  his  family,  he  found  a  medical 
school,  under  the  charge  of  German  professors, 
who  lectured  to  their  pupils,  hardly  a  dozen  in 
number,  in  the  modern  Greek  language.  An  op- 
portunity was  here  afforded  him  of  studying  the 
endemic  diseases  of  the  country,  then  little  under- 
stood, and  he  took  special  pains  to  investigate  the 
nature  of  lepra,  which  he  concluded  was  only  an 
obstinate  form  of  syphilis.  His  visit  to  the  Morea 
was  made  expressly  to  see  the  ancient  city  of  Epi- 
daurus,  the  birthplace  of  ^sculapius,  the  father  of 
medicine.  It  was  the  ultima  thule  of  his  aspira- 
tions, the  Mecca  of  his  pilgrimage  to  Greece.  It 
was  here,  in  a  spot  hallowed  by  a  thousand  pro- 
fessional associations,  that  he  performed  his  famous 
feat,  rendered  so  by  his  American  detractors,  of 
sacrificing  a  cock  to  the  memory  of  the  ruling 
deity,  having  previously  tied  both  carotid  arteries 
of  the  honored  bird,  and  delivered,  in  the  presence 
of  his  companions,  a  brief  clinical  discourse,   the 


36 


THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF 


first,  probably,  ever  given  in  that  part  of  the 
world. 

For  this  performance  Dr.  Mott  was  severely 
ridiculed,  after  the  publication  of  his  travels,  espe- 
cially by  the  medical  press  of  his  own  country. 
It  was,  however,  only  what  any  intelligent  physi- 
cian, an  enthusiastic  devotee  of  his  profession, 
would  have  done  under  similar  circumstances. 
The  cock  was  the  favorite  bird  of  the  god  of 
Medicine,  and  it  was  just  as  natural  for  a  great 
surgeon,  standing  at  his  tomb,  to  offer  such  a  sacri- 
fice to  his  memory,  as  for  Socrates,  influenced  by 
his  strong  religious  persuasions,  to  request  Crito, 
before  he  passed  into  a  state  of  insensibility  from 
the  hemlock  administered  to  him  by  the  execu- 
tioner, to  pay  a  similar  tribute.  "  Crito,  we  owe 
a  cock  to  iEsculapius:  discharge  the  debt,  and  by 
no  means  omit  it." 

In  Constantinople,  where  his  fame  had  preceded 
him,  he  was  received  with  great  distinction  by  the 
reigning  Sultan,  Abdul  Medjid,  from  whose  head 
he  removed  a  tumor  in  the  presence  of  the  court 
physician.  For  this  service  he  was  invested  by 
that  sovereign  with  the  order  of  Knight  of  Med- 
jidichi  of  Constantinople. 


VALENTINE  MOTT,  M.  D.  37 


CHAPTER  IV. 

SURGICAL  OPERATIONS. 

Ligation  of  the  innominate  artery — Excision  of  the  lower  jaw — Ampu- 
tation at  the  hip-joint  —  Excision  of  the  clavicle  —  Hydrorachitis  — 
Ligation  of  the  common  iliac — Immobility  of  the  lower  jaw — Nasal 
polyp — Lithotomy — Qualities  as  an  operator. 

We  must  now  go  back  some  years,  and  inquire 
into  Dr.  Mott's  exploits  as  an  operator,  those 
achievements  upon  which  his  claims  to  lasting 
fame  will  mainly  rest.  Of  the  many  thousand 
operations  which  he  performed  only  a  very  few 
need  be  specified  to  show  that  the  great  reputation 
founded  upon  them  was  justly  deserved.  The 
name  of  Churchill  is  not  more  indissolubly  asso- 
ciated with  the  battle  of  Blenheim,  or  that  of 
Wellington  with  the  battle  of  Waterloo,  than  is 
the  name  of  Valentine  Mott  with  the  history  of 
surgery  in  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
What  they,  and  others  like  them,  accomplished 
with  the  sword  aided  by  hordes  of  soldiers,  he 
accomplished,  silently  and  alone,  with  the  knife. 
His  victories  and  his  triumphs  were  not  less  real 
than  theirs. 

It  has  been  seen  that  Dr.  Mott,  after  his  return 
from  Europe,  in  1809,  was  not  long  in  securing 


38 


THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF 


business.  Notwithstanding  the  distinguished  phy- 
sicians who  occupied  the  field,  he  soon  became  a 
practitioner  of  mark ;  for  Fortune  seems  to  have 
showered  upon  him  more  than  an  ordinary  share 
of  her  favors.  His  principal  competitors  in  sur- 
gery, among  the  older  members  of  the  profession, 
were  Dr.  Richard  Kissam  and  Dr.  Wright  Post, 
men  of  acknowledged  ability,  and  of  distinguished 
reputation.  The  former  was  for  thirty  years  one 
of  the  surgeons  of  the  New  York  Hospital,  and 
was  particularly  celebrated  as  a  lithotomist.  Of 
sixty-five  operations  which  he  performed  for  the 
relief  of  vesical  calculus,  only  three  proved  fatal; 
a  degree  of  success  rarely  equalled  anywhere.  Dr. 
Post  was  Professor  of  Surgery  in  Columbia  Col- 
lege, and  it  was  under  his  teaching  that  young 
Mott  became  first  thoroughly  enamored  with  that 
branch  of  the  profession  which  he  subsequently 
so  much  adorned.  His  merit  as  a  surgeon  was 
very  great,  and,  until  his  pupil  came  upon  the 
stage,  his  only  rivals  in  America  were  Physick 
and  Warren.  His  name  is  honorably  associated 
with  a  number  of  brilliant  operations,  the  more 
remarkable  because  they  were  performed  at  a  time 
when  such  exploits  were  comparatively  uncom- 
mon. To  him  belongs  the  credit  of  having  been 
the  first  to  tie  successfully  the  subclavian  artery 
above  the  clavicle,  on  the  outer  side  of  the  scalene 
muscles,  for  the  cure  of  axillary  aneurism.     Kis- 


VALENTINE  MOTT,  M.  D.  ^9 

sam  died  in  1822,  and  Post  six  years  after,  thus 
leaving  Mott  in  the  undisputed  possession  of  the 
field,  if  we  except  Dr.  Alexander  H.  Stevens, 
who,  after  a  career  of  great  usefulness  and  honor, 
retired  upwards  of  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago 
from  active  practice,  to  his  suburban  residence  at 
Astoria,  where,  surrounded  by  admiring  friends 
and  all  the  elegancies  and  refinements  that  can 
adorn  human  life,  he  is  spending  the  evening  of 
his  days  in  undisturbed  tranquillity  and  happiness. 
The  greatest  of  his  earlier  operations — ^that 
which  gave  him  a  world-wide  reputation,  and 
placed  him  in  the  very  foremost  rank  of  the  illus- 
trious surgeons  of  his  day — was  performed  by  Dr. 
Mott  in  May,  181 8,  in  the  thirty-fourth  year  of 
his  age,  and  in  the  thirteenth  year  of  his  profes- 
sional life.  It  was  a  feat  which  had  never  been 
accon^plished  before,  and  was  nothing  less  than 
the  ligation  of  the  innominate  artery,  a  small 
stunted  vessel,  hardly  an  inch  and  a  third  in 
length,  arising  from  the  aorta,  within,  practically 
speaking,  fearful  proximity  to  the  heart.  A  care- 
ful study  of  Mr.  Allan  Burns'  celebrated  work  on 
the  Surgical  Anatomy  of  the  Head  and  Neck  had 
long  ago  convinced  him  of  the  feasibility  of  the 
operation,  and  he  had  been  in  the  habit,  for  seve- 
ral years,  of  exhibiting  it  upon  the  dead  subject  in 
his  surgical  lectures.  With  a  steady  hand,  and  a 
correct  knowledge  of  the  anatomy  of  the  parts, 


40 


THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF 


he  knew  it  could  be  performed  upon  the  living 
subject,  and  he  only  waited  for  a  suitable  oppor- 
tunity to  carry  it  into  effect.  This  at  length  pre- 
sented itself,  in  the  person  of  Michael  Bateman — 
his  name  deserves  to  be  recorded — a  sailor,  a  na- 
tive of  Massachusetts,  fifty-seven  years  of  age,  the 
subject  of  an  aneurism  of  the  right  subclavian 
artery.  His  first  idea  was  to  tie  this  vessel,  if  it 
should  be  sufficiently  sound,  on  the  inside  of  the 
scalene  muscles;  if  not,  to  secure  the  innominate 
artery.  The  operation  was  performed  on  the  i  ith 
of  May;  and,  after  a  careful  dissection,  it  was  as- 
certained that  there  was  such  an  amount  of  disease 
as  to  render  it  necessary  either  to  abandon  the 
poor  patient  to  his  fate  or  to  throw  a  ligature 
round  the  innominate  artery.  He  did  not  hesi- 
tate. Doubtful  whether  so  large  a  quantity  of 
blood  could  suddenly  be  intercepted  so  near  the 
heart  without  very  serious  effects  upon  the  brain, 
he  drew  the  cord  very  gradually,  with  his  eyes 
intently  fixed  upon  the  patient's  countenance,  de- 
termined to  withdraw  it  instantly  if  any  alarming 
symptoms  should  arise.  His  feelings  had  been 
wrought  to  the  highest  pitch,  and  we  may  there- 
fore easily  imagine  the  relief  he  experienced  when 
he  perceived,  to  use  his  own  language,  "No  change 
of  feature  or  agitation  of  body."  The  arteries  at 
the  wrist  at  once  ceased  to  beat,  and  the  tumor 
was  reduced  to  one-third  of  its  original  volume. 


VALENTINE  MOTT,  M.  D.  4 1 

A  minute  diary  of  the  case  was  kept.  Everything 
proceeded  favorably,  with  every  prospect  of  final 
recovery,  until  the  twenty-third  day,  when  he- 
morrhage to  the  amount  of  twenty-four  ounces 
occurred,  followed  by  excessive  prostration.  The 
bleeding  recurred  at  intervals  until  the  twenty- 
sixth  day,  when  the  man  expired  from  sheer  ex- 
haustion. The  ligature  had  separated  at  the  end 
of  the  second  week.  The  dissection  showed  the 
cause  of  death  to  have  been  ulceration  of  the 
wound,  going  on  insidiously  at  the  bottom,  while 
the  upper  part  was  rapidly  healing,  and  ruinously 
involving,  to  an  extent  nearly  of  one  inch,  the 
innominate,  subclavian,  and  carotid  arteries,  which 
opened  into  the  cavity  of  the  aneurism,  and  were 
only  partially  occluded  by  coagula. 

Although  the  operation  proved  fatal,  the  case 
fully  established  the  practicability,  and  also  the 
propriety,  of  its  execution.  Regretting  this  un- 
toward circumstance,  "I  am  happy,"  he  says,  "in 
the  reflection,  as  it  is  the  only  time  it  has  ever 
been  performed,  that  it  is  the  bearer  of  a  message 
to  surgery,  containing  new  and  important  results." 
To  appreciate  the  difficulty  and  danger  of  this 
operation  it  is  necessary  to  remember  that  the 
ligature  was  placed  within  one  inch  of  the  aorta, 
the  great  trunk  of  the  arterial  system,  that  the 
pleura   and   lung   were   in    close   proximity,   and. 


42  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF 

lastly,  that  it  held  out  to  the  poor  patient  the  only 
chance  of  relief. 

The  operation  thus  initiated  has  been  performed 
altogether  about  ten  times,  and  in  every  instance, 
save  one,  death  was  caused  by  hemorrhage  from 
the  wound,  either  from  the  want  of  occlusion  of 
the  ligated  artery,  or  of  the  carotid  and  subclavian. 
In  the  case  of  Von  Graefe,  who  was  the  first  to 
repeat  the  operation,  the  patient,  for  a  long  time 
supposed  to  be  out  of  danger,  perished  on  the 
sixty-seventh  day. 

The  last  time  in  which  this  vessel  was  secured 
was  in  1864.  The  case  was  one  of  traumatic  an- 
eurism of  the  subclavian  artery,  and  the  intrepid 
operator.  Dr.  A.  W.  Smyth,  of  New  Orleans,  in- 
fluenced by  the  sad  experience  of  the  past,  tied  at 
the  same  time  the  common  carotid.  Notwith- 
standing this  precaution,  repeated  hemorrhages 
occurred,  and  the  patient  would  have  perished  if 
the  vertebral  artery,  the  source  of  the  bleeding, 
had  not  also  been  at  length  ligated.  This  opera- 
tion was  performed  fifty-four  days  after  the  first, 
and  eventuated  in  complete  recovery.  Thus,  after 
the-^lapse  of  nearly  half  a  century,  it  has  at  length 
been  demonstrated  that  ligation  of  the  innomi- 
nate artery  alone  for  aneurism  of  the  subclavian 
or  carotid  is  incapable  of  efi^ecting  a  cure.  In 
order  to  succeed  it  is  necessary  at  the  same  time 


VALENTINE  MOTT,  M.  D.  43 

to  secure  one  of  these  vessels  and  likewise  the 
vertebral,  as  in  the  case  of  Dr.  Smyth,  otherwise 
death  from  secondary  hemorrhage  will  be  inevi- 
table. It  reflects  no  discredit  upon  Dr.  Mott's 
judgment  that  he  did  not,  in  his  operation,  foresee 
this  necessity.  The  attempt  to  tie  an  artery  so 
near  the  heart  was  in  itself  an  extremely  bold 
undertaking.  Great  truths  are  generally  unravel- 
led slowly,  step  by  step,  as  it  were.  The  mind 
does  not  all  at  once  grasp  the  leading  points  of  a 
grand  subject.  At  first  all  is  dark  and  mysterious; 
it  is  only  by  degrees  that  light  appears,  doubt 
vanishes,  and  truth  presents  herself  in  all  her  love- 
liness. It  is  sufficient  honor  for  Mott  to  have 
been  the  pioneer  in  such  a  noble  enterprise.  He 
was  in  ecstasy  over  the  success  of  Dr.  Smyth's 
case.  In  a  copy  of  that  gentleman's  report  of  the 
operation,  kindly  sent  me  by  Mott,  the  great  sur- 
geon said:  *'I  know  you  will  be  delighted  with 
this  crowning  jewels 

In  1 82 1,  Dr.  Mott  excised  the  right  side  of  the 
lower  jaw  of  a  young  woman,  the  subject  of  osteo- 
sarcoma, having  previously,  as  a  means  of  prevent- 
ing hemorrhage,  secured  the  primitive  carotid 
artery.  The  operation,  an  account  of  which  was 
published  in  the  first  volume  of  the  "New  York 
Medical  and  Physical  Journal,"  was  entirely  suc- 
cessful, notwithstanding  its  formidable  character. 
Afterwards,  in    three  instances,  he   removed    the 


44  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF 

bone,  with  equally  happy  results,  at  the  temporo- 
maxillary  articulation. 

When  his  first  case  occurred,  Dr.  Mott  was  not 
aware  that  a  similar,  though  much  less  extensive, 
operation  had  been  performed,  in  1810,  by  Dr. 
W.  H.  Deadrick,  of  Tennessee.  The  reason  of 
this  was  that  no  history  of  the  operation  was  pub- 
lished until  1823,  two  years  after  the  occurrence 
of  the  New  York  case,  which  at  the  time  attracted 
much  attention  on  account  of  its  supposed  novelty. 
Baron  Dupuytren,  in  181 2,  removed  a  large  por- 
tion of  the  inferior  maxilla  for  carcinoma.  Al- 
though it  is  thus  certain  that  Mott  had  been 
anticipated  in  these  operations,  both  in  the  United 
States  and  in  France,  yet  there  can  be  no  question 
that  their  success  tended  very  greatly  to  lessen  the 
fears  of  these  undertakings,  and  to  pave  the  way 
more  effectually  for  their  general  adoption.  The 
brilliant  achievements  of  McClellan,  of  Philadel- 
phia, and  of  Cusack,  of  Dublin,  were  directly 
traceable  to  the  efforts  of  the  New  York  surgeon 
to  extend  relief  to  a  class  of  sufferers  supposed  for 
a  long  time  to  be  beyond  the  pale  of  hope.  The 
recent  advances  in  this  particular  branch  of  chi- 
rurgery  have  proved  that  ligation  of  the  common 
carotid  artery,  as  a  preliminary  measure  to  prevent 
hemorrhage,  even  when  the  morbid  growth  is  of 
extraordinary  bulk,  may  safely  be  omitted. 

Amputation  at  the  hip-joint,  by  which  nearly 


VALENTINE  MOTT,  M.  D.  45 

one-fourth  of  the  entire  body  is  removed,  was 
performed  by  Dr.  Mott  in  1824.  The  patient,  a 
lad  ten  years  of  age,  had  been  much  exhausted 
by  the  effects  of  a  badly-treated  fracture  of  the 
thigh.  Two-thirds  of  the  stump  healed  by  the 
first  intention,  and  within  six  weeks  the  entire 
wound  was  closed.  It  was  long  believed  by  Dr. 
Mott  and  the  profession  generally  that  this  had 
been  the  first  operation  of  the  kind  ever  performed 
in  America;  but  many  years  after  it  was  ascer- 
tained that  he  had  been  anticipated  by  Dr.  Walter 
Brashear,  of  Bardstown,  Kentucky,  as  early  as 
1806.  No  account  of  the  case,  however,  had  ever 
been  published,  and  when  Mott  discovered  his 
error  he  was  among  the  very  first  to  award  to  the 
western  surgeon  the  credit  so  justly  due  him.  His 
motto  always  was  "Palmam  qui  meruit  ferat." 
This  credit  is  so  much  the  greater  because,  when 
the  operation  was  performed.  Dr.  Brashear  had  no 
precedent  to  guide  him,  as  no  information  of  the 
cases  of  Larrey,  Guthrie,  and  other  military  sur- 
geons of  Europe  had  reached  this  country. 

Excision  of  the  clavicle,  performed  by  Mott,  in 
1828,  for  osteo-sarcoma  of  that  bone,  is,  in  all 
respects,  one  of  the  most  remarkable  exploits  in 
the  history  of  surgery,  if,  indeed,  it  has  any  paral- 
lel. "It  surpassed,"  he  says,  "in  tediousness,  dif- 
ficulty, and  danger,  anything  which  I  had  ever 
witnessed  or  undertaken."    The  tumor,  four  inches 


46  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF 

in  diameter  at  its  base,  incompressible,  of  rapid 
growth,  and  of  the  volume  of  a  man's  doubled 
fist,  had  contracted  the  most  powerful  and  exten- 
sive adhesions,  and  involved  on  all  sides  the  most 
important  structures.  To  guard  against  the  en- 
trance of  air  into  the  external  jugular  vein,  an 
occurrence  often  followed  by  instant  death,  that 
vessel  was  secured,  as  a  preliminary  step,  with  two 
ligatures.  The  tumor  being  excessively  vascular, 
the  blood  gushed  forth  so  freely  at  every  stroke  of 
the  scalpel  as  to  render  it  necessary  to  tie  not  less 
than  forty  arteries,  an  occurrence  probably  without 
a  parallel  in  the  history  of  surgery.  A  faint  idea 
of  the  magnitude  and  difficulty  of  the  undertaking 
may  be  formed  when  it  is  stated  that  nearly  four 
hours  were  consumed  in  its  execution — a  portion 
of  the  time  in  efforts  to  revive  the  patient  from 
the  effects  of  shock  and  loss  of  blood — and  when 
it  is  recollected  that  the  operator  was  one  whose 
knowledge  of  surgical  anatomy  and  manual  dex- 
terity have  never  been  surpassed.  Dr.  Mott,  with 
a  pardonable  vanity,  called  it  his  Waterloo  opera- 
tion, as  it  was  performed  on  the  17th  of  June,  the 
day  before  the  anniversary  of  that  famous  battle 
which  forever  decided  the  destiny  of  Napoleon 
upon  the  throne  of  France. 

An  attempt  has  been  made  to  deprive  Dr.  Mott 
of  the  honor  of  priority  of  this  operation  by  as- 
cribing it  to  Dr.  Charles  McCreary,  of  Hartford, 


VALENTINE  MOTT,  M.  D.  47 

Kentucky,  who,  in  181 3,  removed  the  right  cla- 
vicle, in  a  youth  fourteen  years  of  age,  on  account 
of  a  scrofulous  affection.  In  a  Report  on  Ken- 
tucky Surgery,  drawn  up  by  me  in  1852,  for  the 
Kentucky  State  Medical  Society,  of  which  I  was 
one  of  the  founders,  and  for  one  year  President,  I 
myself  gave  currency  to  that  idea;  but  I  am  now, 
after  a  more  careful  study  of  the  two  cases,  per- 
fectly satisfied  that  they  had  nothing  whatever  in 
common  with  each  other,  and  that  Dr.  Mott  is 
fully  entitled  to  all  the  merit  that  can  attach  to 
such  a  procedure.  The  case  of  Dr.  McCreary  was 
one  simply  of  caries,  or  of  caries  and  necrosis,  and 
required  no  particular  dexterity  for  the  removal 
of  the  bone,  as  it  was  but  little,  if  any,  enlarged, 
and  not  encroached  upon  in  any  manner  whatever 
by  the  surrounding  structures.  On  the  contrary, 
it  was  comparatively  isolated,  and  therefore  easily 
detached.  The  operation,  in  fact,  was  such  as  any 
one,  even  the  veriest  tyro  in  surgery,  could  have 
performed.  In  Dr.  Mott's  case  matters  were  alto- 
gether different.  The  difficulty  and  danger  were 
immense,  and  there  was  a  tumor  of  large  size  with 
the  most  intimate  and  powerful  adhesions  that 
can  be  conceived  of,  in  close  proximity  not  only 
with  large  arteries,  veins,  and  nerves,  but  even  the 
pleura  and  lung,  and  which  only  a  surgeon  of  the 
most  consummate  coolness  and  dexterity  could 
sever.     I  doubt  very  much  whether  the  annals  of 


48  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF 

surgery,  ancient  or  modern,  present  a  parallel 
case,  one  requiring  such  an  amount  of  anatomical 
knowledge,  judgment,  skill,  and  patience.  I  con- 
sider it  as  by  far  the  very  greatest  of  all  Dr.  Mott's 
operations,  not  excepting  those  upon  the  innomi- 
nate and  primitive  iliac  arteries. 

The  patient,  a  youth  of  nineteen  years,  not  only 
rapidly  recovered  from  the  immediate  effects  of  the 
operation,  but  in  less  than  twelve  months  regained 
the  perfect  use  of  the  corresponding  extremity. 
The  small  acromial  end  of  the  bone,  left  behind 
in  the  operation,  had  formed  permanent  adhesions 
with  the  surrounding  parts,  and  thus  maintained 
the  shoulder  in  its  normal  position. 

A  perfect  cure  of  hydrorachitis,  a  congenital 
affection,  usually  called  spina  bifida,  or  cleft-spine, 
is,  under  any  circumstances,  even  the  most  favor- 
able, an  extremely  uncommon  occurrence.  Dr. 
Mott  had  the  proud  satisfaction  of  saving  two 
children  by  operative  interference.  The  first  case 
came  under  his  observation  in  1830.  The  tumor, 
situated  in  the  lower  portion  of  the  back,  and  in 
volume  nearly  equal  to  a  goose's  egg,  was  included 
in  an  elliptical  incision,  and  the  wound,  which 
united  by  the  first  intention,  closed  with  inter- 
rupted sutures  and  adhesive  plaster.  The  patient, 
nine  years  of  age,  rapidly  recovered,  and  subse- 
quently enjoyed  vigorous  health.  In  the  other 
case,  involving  the  cervico-dorsal  region,  a  similar 


VALENTINE  MOTT,  M.  D.  49 

operation  was  performed  on  the  ninth  day  after 
birth,  with  results  not  less  gratifying. 

In  the  ligation  of  arteries  he  was  "facile  prin- 
ceps;"  absolutely  without  a  rival.  No  surgeon,  liv- 
ing or  dead,  ever  tied  so  many  vessels,  or  so  success- 
fully, for  the  cure  of  aneurism,  the  relief  of  injury, 
or  the  arrest  of  morbid  growths.  The  catalogue, 
inclusive  of  the  celebrated  case  of  the  innominate 
artery,  already  described,  comprises  eight  examples 
of  the  subclavian  artery,  fifty-one  of  the  primitive 
carotid,  two  of  the  external  carotid,  one  of  the 
common  iliac,  six  of  the  external  iliac,  two  of  the 
internal  iliac,  fifty-seven  of  the  femoral,  and  ten  of 
the  popliteal;  in  all  one  hundred  and  thirty-eight. 

His  great  operation  for  tying  the  common  iliac 
artery  for  the  cure  of  aneurism  came  off  in  1827, 
and  was  completely  successful.  In  only  one  in- 
stance before  had  this  vessel  been  secured  in  the 
living  subject.  The  case  alluded  to  occurred  in 
1 81 2,  in  the  practice  of  Dr.  William  Gibson,  then 
Professor  of  Surgery  in  the  University  of  Mary- 
land, and  afterwards  in  the  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania, the  patient  having  been  wounded  in  the 
abdomen  by  a  musket-ball  during  the  riots  in 
Baltimore.  He  survived  the  operation  thirteen 
days,  the  immediate  cause  of  death  being  perito- 
nitis and  secondary  hemorrhage.  The  case  is  one 
of  profound  interest,  inasmuch  as  it  served  to  es- 
tablish, in  the  most  irrefragable  manner,  a  great 

4 


So 


THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF 


principle  in  the  operative  surgery  of  the  arteries, 
that  the  largest  vessel  of  this  kind  may  be  oblite- 
rated, and  yet  the  circulation  in  the  extremities 
go  on  with  perfect  freedom.  Mott's  case  was  one 
of  aneurism,  of  immense  size,  of  the  external  iliac 
artery,  and  the  operation  was  attended  with  great 
difficulty  on  account  of  the  extensive  disease  of 
the  vessel.  The  ligature  was  placed  within  half 
an  inch  of  the  aorta.  The  patient  recovered  with- 
out an  untoward  symptom. 

The  next  operation  upon  this  vessel  was  per- 
formed by  Sir  Philip  Crampton,  of  Dublin,  in 
1828,  with  an  unfavorable  result.  The  statistics 
of  twenty-seven  cases,  tabulated  by  Dr.  Stephen 
Smith,  of  New  York,  in  i860,  exhibit  eleven  in 
which  the  artery  was  tied  for  the  arrest  of  hemor- 
rhage with  only  one  recovery,  and  fifteen  in  which 
it  was  secured  for  aneurism,  with  five  cures  and 
ten  deaths. 

Dr.  Mott  possessed  peculiar  skill  in  the  treat- 
ment of  hare-lip.  Many  of  the  worst  cases  of 
this  malformation  that  fell  into  his  hands  were  so 
effectually  cured  as  to  render  it  difficult,  a  few 
years  after  the  operation,  to  detect  any  traces  of 
the  original  defect. 

I  am  unable  to  say  what  his  success  was  in  rhi- 
noplasty, or  in  the  formation  of  new  noses ;  a 
branch  of  surgery  so  ably  practised  by  Taliacotius 
in  the  sixteenth  century,  and  so  greatly  perfected 


VALENTINE  MOTT,  M.  D.  5 1 

by  Graefe,  DiefFenbach,  Serre,  Zeis,  Pancoast,  Fer- 
gusson,  and  others  in  our  own  day.  It  is  well 
known  that  he  took  a  deep  interest  in  the  recon- 
structive surgery  of  the  lips  and  cheeks,  formerly 
so  often  mutilated  by  the  injudicious  use  of  mer- 
cury, and  he  has  published  the  particulars  of  a 
number  of  successful  cures.  One  of  these  cases 
occurred  as  early  as  1825,  and  deserves  allusion  on 
account  of  the  immense  size  of  the  gap,  for  filling 
which  he  was  compelled  to  borrow  a  large  flap  of 
integument  from  the  neighboring  surface. 

One  of  the  most  distressing  accidents  that  can 
possibly  befall  a  human  being  is  immobility  of  the 
lower  jaw,  dependent  upon  anchylosis  of  the  tem- 
poro-maxillary  articulation.  This  affection,  usu- 
ally caused  by  salivation,  was  formerly  exceedingly 
common  in  all  sections  of  this  country,  but  more 
especially  in  the  Southwestern  States,  owing  to 
the  inordinate  use  of  mercury  in  almost  every 
form  of  disease,  however  trivial.  As  a  natural 
consequence  of  this  wretched  practice,  fortunately 
now  obsolete,  numerous  cases  of  mortification 
both  of  the  jaw-bones,  and  of  the  gums,  lips,  and 
cheeks  occurred,  leading  to  the  most  distressing 
deformity,  and  the  necessity  almost  of  a  new 
branch  of  surgery.  Dr.  Mott  had  a  full  share  of 
such  cases.  In  18 12,  soon  after  his  settlement  in 
New  York,  a  most  distressing  one  fell  under  his 
notice,    and    elicited    his    most    lively    sympathy. 


52 


THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF 


The  success  which  attended  his  efforts  at  restitu- 
tion excited  much  interest  in  the  profession,  and 
induced  him  to  bestow  special  attention  upon  the 
subject.  After  much  reflection  he  finally  con- 
structed an  instrument  upon  the  screw  and  lever 
principle,  for  prying  open  the  jaw  after  the  exci- 
sion, as  a  preliminary  step,  of  the  inodular  tissues. 
In  referring  afterwards  to  the  work  of  Scultetus, 
the  "Armamentarium  Chirurgicum,"  published  in 
the  seventeenth  century,  he  found,  much  to  his 
surprise,  almost  a  fac-simile  of  his  own  instrument, 
just  as  Robert  Liston,  in  the  same  work,  found  a 
figure  and  description  of  what  modern  surgeons 
have  generally  been  pleased  to  call  Liston's  bone- 
forceps;  so  true  is  it  that  there  is  nothing  new 
under  the  sun. 

An  operation  which  added  greatly  to  his  fame, 
as  an  expert  and  daring  surgeon,  was  performed 
by  him,  in  1841,  for  the  removal  of  an  immense 
fibroid  tumor,  filling  up  the  entire  nostril,  and 
dipping  far  down  into  the  pharynx.  The  suffer- 
ing was  so  excessive  as  seriously  to  impair  the 
man's  general  health.  After  many  fruitless  efforts 
to  effect  riddance  by  different  surgeons.  Dr.  Mott 
finally  accomplished  the  object  by  the  division  of 
the  nasal  and  maxillary  bones  in  front  of  the  face, 
rendered  necessary  to  afford  free  access  to  the 
morbid  growth.  The  operation,  though  not  the 
first  of  the  kind,  was  the  most  extensive  and  diffi- 


VALENTINE  MOTT,  M.  D.  ^3 

cult  that  had  ever  been  performed  for  such  a  pur- 
pose, and  was  followed  by  complete  recovery. 

As  a  lithotomist  he  stood  in  the  very  foremost 
rank.  He  was  a  strong  advocate  of  the  lateral 
method,  which  he  always,  like  Cheselden,  by 
whom  the  operation  was  so  greatly  perfected,  per- 
formed with  the  bistoury.  He  considered  the 
gorget  as  a  clumsy,  unwieldy,  unscientific  instru- 
ment, unfit  for  such  a  purpose.  He  fully  indorsed 
the  views  of  Mr.  Liston,  who  declared  that  the 
gorget  looked  more  like  a  "flauchter-spade,"  an 
implement  for  cutting  turf,  than  an  instrument 
for  performing  a  delicate  surgical  operation.  In  '; 
1855,  ^^  wrote  to  me  that  he  had  operated  162 
times,  with  a  loss  only  of  seven  patients,  or  in  the 
ratio  of  one  in  twenty-seven;  a  success  of  which 
few  surgeons,  ancient  or  modern,  can  boast.  He 
afterwards  had  three  other  cases,  making  in  all 
165.  He  extracted  the  largest  stone  that  was  ever 
removed  from  the  living  body,  its  weight  being 
seventeen  ounces  and  two  drachms.  The  patient, 
an  aged  man,  lived  several  days  after  the  operation. 

Other  operations,  many  of  them  of  great  mag- 
nitude and  delicacy,  might  be  mentioned,  but  this 
is  unnecessary,  the  more  especially  as  I  have  already 
considerably  exceeded  the  limits  I  had  intended 
to  assign  to  this  branch  of  the  subject.  His  great 
and  crowning  exploits  were,  the  ligation  of  the 
innominate  artery,  the  excision  of  the  collar  bone. 


54 


THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF 


and  the  ligation  of  the  common  iliac  artery,  the 
first  successful  example  of  the  kind  upon  record. 
All  these  were  really  wonderful  performances,  at 
the  time  of  their  occurrence  without  a  parallel  in 
the  history  of  surgery. 

Dr.  Mott  possessed,  in  an  extraordinary  degree, 
all  the  qualities  of  a  great  operator — an  eye  that 
never  quailed,  a  hand  that  never  trembled,  and  a 
mind  so  well  disciplined  as  to  be  capable  of  meet- 
ing every  emergency.  His  dexterity  in  the  use 
of  the  knife  and  the  more  delicate  manipulations 
has  rarely  been  equalled,  certainly  never  excelled. 
He  cut  almost  as  easily  w^ith  one  hand  as  with  the 
other.  His  natural  gifts,  his  intimate  knowledge 
of  surgical  anatomy,  for  a  long  time  his  daily 
study,  and  his  vast  opportunities,  placed  him  at  an 
early  period  of  his  life  in  the  foremost  rank  of 
great  operators. 

It  must  not,  however,  be  supposed  that  he  was 
a  mere  operator,  or  that  he  had  an  inordinate 
fondness  for  the  use  of  the  knife.  Nothing  could 
be  more  untrue.  He  possessed  attributes  of  a 
much  higher  and  nobler  quality.  He  was,  as 
every  surgeon,  with  the  slightest  pretension  to  the 
name  must  be,  an  accomplished  physician,  a  close 
observer  of  disease,  acute  in  diagnosis,  and  per- 
fectly familiar  with  the  nature  and  uses  of  reme- 
dies, in  the  efficacy  of  which  he  was  a  firm  believer. 
It  is  deeply  to  be  regretted  that  mankind  so  sel- 


VALENTINE  MOTT,  M.  D. 


55 


dom  know  the  real  differences  between  the  mere 
operator  and  the  educated,  skilful,  and  enlightened 
surgeon.  The  one  delights  in  the  use  of  the  knife 
and  the  display  of  instruments;  he  cuts  without 
.  discrimination  or  judgment,  and  often  selects  the 
very  worst  cases,  on  account  of  the  eclat  they  may 
elicit.  He  knows  little  of  therapeutics,  and  con- 
ducts his  after-treatment  without  regard  to  conse- 
quences. The  surgeon,  on  the  contrary,  is  a  man 
of  science ;  he  is  essentially  conservative,  and, 
hence,  employs  the  knife  only  as  a  dernier  resort; 
he  has  great  confidence  in  the  resources  of  Nature, 
carefully  watches  his  patient,  and  uses  a  thousand 
stratagems  to  waylay  and  combat  disease.  The 
one  is  a  curse;  the  other  a  blessing.  The  knife's- 
man  is  a  disgrace  to  the  profession;  the  conserva- 
tive surgeon  an  ornament  and  an  honor.  I  know 
of  no  being  more  contemptible  than  one  who 
cuts  merely  for  the  sake  of  a  fee,  or  the  pitiful 
notoriety  it  may  secure  him. 

To  be  a  great  surgeon,  a  great  operator,  a  great 
teacher,  was  the  measure  of  Dr.  Mott's  ambition, 
the  dream  of  his  youth,  the  glory  of  his  riper 
years.  He  cultivated  surgery  with  a  rare  single- 
ness of  aim;  it  was  with  him  *'totus  in  illis;" 
everything  was  subordinated  to  the  accomplish- 
ment of  that  particular  end.  Much  of  his  success 
was  due  to  his  accurate  knowledge  of  surgical 
anatomy;  he  knew  the  relative  position  of  every 


56  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF 

artery,  and  vein,  and  nerve,  and  muscle,  as  tho- 
roughly as  a  child  knows  its  alphabet.  He  could 
shut  his  eyes,  and  see  everything  as  clearly  as  if  it 
had  been  reflected  from  a  mirror.  He  tells  us,  in 
one  of  his  introductory  discourses,  that  he  never 
performed  a  great  or  difficult  operation  upon  the 
living  subject  without  having  first  performed  it 
upon  the  dead.  The  fact  is,  he  had  a  passion  for 
dissecting;  and,  although  he  was  not,  like  Vesa- 
lius,  obliged  to  rob  the  gibbet  for  subjects,  he  had 
often  not  a  little  trouble  in  obtaining  them.  The 
younger  physicians  of  New  York,  who  pursue 
their  studies  under  the  peaceful  operation  of  the 
Anatomy  Bill,  enacted  less  than  twenty  years  ago, 
know  nothing  of  the  perils  and  hardships  which 
attended  dissections  in  the  early  days  of  Mott. 

Another  great  element  of  power  was  his  know- 
ledge of  morbid  anatomy.  It  may  safely  be 
affirmed  that  no  man  can  be  a  surgeon,  in  the 
true  and  more  exalted  sense  of  that  term,  unless 
he  is  well  informed  upon  this  subject.  Dr.  Mott 
fully  appreciated  the  importance  of  this  study  at 
the  very  outset  of  his  professional  life,  and  he 
therefore  lost  no  opportunity  of  enlarging  his 
knowledge  of  it  by  dissections  and  post-mortem 
examinations.  His  museum  was  a  noble  collec- 
tion of  morbid  specimens,  from  which  he  must 
have  derived  lessons  of  the  greatest  value  as  a 
diagnostician  and  therapeutist. 


VALENTINE  MOTT,  M.  D.  57 


CHAPTER  V. 

LITERARY,  EDUCATIONAL,  AND  OTHER  LABORS. 

Writes  little — New  York  Medical  and  Surgical  Register — Book  of  Tra- 
vels— Velpeau's  Surgery — Introductory  and  other  discourses — College 
teaching — Private  pupils — Prize  medals — Connection  with  hospitals. 

As  a  literary  man  Dr.  Mott  has  left  behind  him 
no  monument  to  perpetuate  his  name.  His  writ- 
ings, unfortunately,  are  very  limited.  It  is  deeply 
to  be  lamented  that  a  practitioner  of  such  vast 
experience  should  have  failed  to  record  his  obser- 
vations for  the  benefit  of  his  profession  and  of 
mankind.  Considering  his  immense  opportuni- 
ties, public  and  private,  for  studying  diseases  and 
accidents,  and  the  astonishing  number  of  opera- 
tions which  he  performed,  from  the  most  insig- 
nificant, as  the  excision  of  a  little  tumor,  to  the 
amputation  at  the  hip-joint,  the  ligation  of  many 
of  the  principal  arteries,  and  the  removal  of  gigan- 
tic morbid  growths,  the  loss  thus  sustained  cannot 
be  too  much  deplored.  He  might  have  published 
a  vast  treatise  on  clinical  surgery,  drawn  entirely 
from  the  field  of  his  own  observations,  and  thereby 
enriched,  if  not  enlarged,  the  domain  of  his  pro- 
fession. Writing,  however,  was  evidently  distaste- 
ful to  him ;  and,  perhaps,  distrustful  of  his  powers. 


58  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF 

he  might  have  recalled  to  mind  the  fact  that  few 
works,  especially  if  composed  early  in  life,  long 
survive  their  authors.  Lacordaire  has  not  exag- 
gerated the  truth  when  he  said :  "After  a  century 
or  two  from  their  appearance,  only  a  very  few  of 
the  books  even  of  the  great  writers  are  read." 
The  sarcastic  remark  of  Voltaire  concerning  Rous- 
seau's "Ode  to  Posterity"  is  eminently  true  of 
professional  works  —  few  reach  their  address. 
Mott's  life  was  too  incessantly  engrossed  by  the 
cares  and  toils  of  his  profession  to  leave  him  any 
leisure  for  extended  authorship.  Nothing  is  so 
well  calculated  to  destroy  one's  literary  taste  as 
constant  fatigue  and  worriment  of  mind,  the  com- 
mon lot  of  those  engaged  in  large  practice,  espe- 
cially surgical,  of  the  responsibility  of  which  few 
persons  can  form  any  just  estimate.  The  great 
bulk  of  Dr.  Mott's  strictly  medical  and  surgical 
writings  consists  of  reports  of  cases  and  operations 
scattered  through  the  periodical  press.  They  de- 
serve to  be  collected  in  book  form.  Of  his  later 
clinical  lectures,  delivered  in  the  University  of  the 
City  of  New  York,  an  abstract  was  published 
some  years  ago  by  one  of  his  pupils.  Dr.  Samuel 
W.  Francis.  He  had  himself  long  contemplated 
the  composition  of  a  work  on  the  capital  opera- 
tions and  new  processes  in  surgery,  of  which  he 
considered   himself  as  the  legitimate  originator ; 


VALENTINE  MOTT,  M.  D.  59 

but,  from  some  cause  or  other,  he  died  without 
accomplishing  his  purpose. 

In  1 8 18,  he  founded,  along  with  Dr.  John  Watts 
and  Dr.  Alexander  H.  Stevens,  the  "New  York 
Medical  and  Surgical  Register,"  designed  mainly 
as  a  repository  of  the  more  important  cases  and 
operations  occurring  in  the  New  York  Hospital, 
of  which  they  were  the  professional  attendants. 
The  work  was  modelled  after  the  "Dublin  Hos- 
pital Reports,"  a  celebrated  periodical,  replete  with 
instructive  matter,  often  referred  to,  even  at  the 
present  day,  on  account  of  the  valuable  informa- 
tion it  affords.  The  Register  was,  unfortunately, 
short-lived;  for  it  ceased  after  the  publication  of 
the  first  volume.  It  will,  however,  always  be  an 
object  of  interest  and  attraction;  first,  because  it 
was  the  first  work  of  the  kind  ever  issued  on  this 
side  of  the  Atlantic,  and,  secondly,  because  it  com- 
prises the  earlier  publications  of  three  physicians, 
who,  all  in  turn,  occupied,  though  in  different 
degrees,  a  high  position  in  public  and  professional 
esteem. 

In  1842,  soon  after  his  return  to  the  United 
States,  he  published  an  account  of  his  foreign 
tour,  under  the  title  of  "Travels  in  Europe  and 
the  East,"  in  an  octavo  volume  of  upwards  of 
four  hundred  pages.  It  attracted  much  attention 
at  the  time,  and  encountered  a  great  deal  of  severe 
and  ungenerous  criticism  from  the  medical  press 


6o  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF 

of  this  country.  Many  of  its  chapters  are  of  ab- 
sorbing interest,  but  by  far  the  most  entertaining 
and  instructive  portion  of  the  work  is  that  which 
relates  to  his  journey  through  Greece. 

In  1 842,  '43,  and  '44,  he  superintended  the  trans- 
lation, by  Dr.  P.  S.  Townsend,  of  Professor  Vel- 
peau's  treatise  on  Operative  Surgery;  a  vast  store- 
house, as  is  well  known,  of  learning  and  research, 
precious  alike  to  science  and  humanity;  a  legacy 
which  the  most  gifted  in  the  long  and  glorious 
line  of  French  surgeons,  from  Ambrose  Pare 
down,  might  have  been  proud  to  bequeath.  Dr. 
Mott's  principal  part  of  the  labor  consisted  of  an 
elaborate  preface  and  the  addition  of  several  hun- 
dred pages  of  new  matter,  made  up,  in  great 
measure,  of  his  previously  published  cases  and 
reports.  It  need  hardly  be  said  that  the  contri- 
butions thus  made  materially  enhanced  the  value 
of  the  original  work.  A  new  edition  of  the 
translation  was  issued,  in  1856,  with  important 
notes  and  annotations,  by  Professor  George  C. 
Blackman,  of  Cincinnati. 

In  the  preface  to  this  work.  Dr.  Mott  adverts 
to  the  fact  that  he  had  long  been  in  the  habit  of 
employing  the  curvilinear  incision,  to  which  Mons. 
Velpeau  justly  attaches  so  much  importance  in 
operations  upon  the  jaws  and  in  resections  of  the 
bones  generally.  The  Coryphaeus  of  French  sur- 
gery, who  has  described  the  advantages  and  supe- 


VALENTINE  MOTT,  M.  D.  6 1 

riority  of  the  proceeding  with  his  accustomed  clear- 
ness and  ability,  had  evidently  forgotten  that  the 
improvement  was  due  mainly  to  the  genius  of  his 
transatlantic  confrere.  Other  operators  have  since 
claimed  the  paternity  of  this  important  practice. 

The  other  published  writings  of  Dr.  Mott  are 
limited  to  introductory  and  valedictory  lectures, 
delivered  to  his  classes  at  the  opening  and  close  of 
the  sessions  of  the  medical  colleges;  an  inaugural 
discourse  on  the  occasion  of  his  assuming  the  du- 
ties of  President  of  the  New  York  Academy  of 
Medicine;  an  address  before  the  Trustees  of  the 
New  York  Inebriate  Asylum  at  Binghampton ;  a 
sketch  of  the  life  of  Dr.  Wright  Post;  and  a  eu- 
logy on  Dr.  John  W.  Francis.  In  1862,  he  pre- 
pared, at  the  request  of  the  United  States  Sanitary 
Commission,  a  paper  on  the  use  of  anassthetics, 
for  the  benefit  of  our  army  surgeons;  and  after- 
wards, for  the  same  body,  a  valuable  article  on  the 
means  of  suppressing  hemorrhage  in  gunshot  and 
other  injuries,  intended  mainly  as  a  guide  for 
wounded  soldiers  on  the  field  of  battle.  He  also 
contributed  several  interesting  and  instructive 
communications  to  the  Transactions  of  the  New 
York  Academy  of  Medicine ;  and  one  to  the 
Royal  Medical  and  Chirurgical  Society  of  Lon- 
don on  a  peculiar  form  of  congenital  tumor  of 
the  skin,  to  which  he  applied  the  term  "Pachy- 
dermatocele."    The  affection,  which  was  not  well 


62  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF 

understood  until  it  was  described  by  Dr.  Mott,  is 
of  rare  occurrence,  and  consists  essentially  in  a 
hypertrophied  condition  of  the  cutaneous  and  cel- 
lular tissues,  forming  masses,  of  various  shapes  and 
sizes,  hanging  as  it  were  from  the  body.  He  met 
only  with  five  cases  of  it.  With  the  exception  of 
notes  to  his  lectures,  he  has  left  no  MSS. 

His  style  as  a  writer  does  not  require  criticism. 
It  is  plain,  simple,  intelligible,  unambitious.  His 
clinical  reports  are  models  of  brevity  and  clearness. 

As  a  public  teacher.  Dr.  Mott  occupied  a  pro- 
minent position.  His  name  is  affixed  to  the  diplo- 
mas of  thousands  of  pupils,  who  were  wont  to  sit 
at  his  feet,  as  if  he  had  been  another  Gamaliel, 
imbibing  knowledge  from  the  rich  fountains  of 
his  mind,  to  qualify  themselves  for  the  successful 
practice  of  their  profession.  Commencing  his 
career  as  a  lecturer  with  a  private  course  on  ana- 
tomy the  winter  after  his  return  from  Europe,  he 
taught  surgery  in  the  schools  and  hospitals  of  his 
adopted  city  for  nearly  half  a  century.  Without 
any  attempt  at  oratory  or  meretricious  display, 
which  no  man  ever  more  despised,  he  was  tho- 
roughly master  of  his  subject,  and  had  the  rare 
faculty  of  making  himself  understood  by  the  dull- 
est intellect.  He  never  committed  to  memory  or 
wrote  out  his  lectures;  a  few  notes  carefully  di- 
gested and  the  dissection  always  before  him  fur- 
nished sufficient  topics  to  carry  him  rapidly  and 


VALENTINE  MOTT,  M.  D.  63 

pleasantly  through  the  hour.  His  manner  in  the 
amphitheatre  was  quiet  and  dignified ;  his  voice 
clear  and  distinct.  His  discourse  was  often  en- 
livened by  a  piquant  anecdote,  illustrative  of  some 
point  of  practice,  or  of  some  great  operation,  of 
which,  perhaps,  he  himself  was  the  principal  part. 
He  always  drew  largely  from  the  stores  of  his 
own  experience.  With  theory  he  had  little  to 
do.  Emphatically  a  teacher  of  facts,  he  never 
failed  to  be  interesting  and  instructive.  His  great 
forte  was  clinical  teaching,  which  no  one  ever 
knew  how  to  set  off  to  better  advantage.  On  such 
occasions  he  was  generally  very  animated,  fre- 
quently facetious,  always  edifying.  The  student 
felt  how  much  he  had  learned,  and  he  often  lin- 
gered behind  after  the  exercises  had  closed,  to 
obtain  a  nearer  look  at  the  object  of  his  adoration. 
This  feeling,  so  natural  in  youths,  not  unfrequently 
leads  to  the  warmest  attachments  between  the 
pupil  and  the  preceptor,  and  is  one  of  the  most 
gratifying  circumstances  in  the  life  of  a  public 
teacher. 

As  a  lecturer,  he  is  said  to  have  occasionally 
been  too  egotistical.  Vanity  is  a  trivial  fault, 
which,  in  one  who  had  so  much  to  be  vain  of, 
might  well  have  been  overlooked.  A  celebrated 
American  phrenologist  was  in  the  habit  of  saying, 
in  speaking  of  the  size  of  the  brain:  "Ladies  and 
gentlemen,  modern  times  have  produced  only  three 


64  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF 

really  great  heads:  one  is  that  of  Daniel  Webster, 
the  second  that  of  Edmund  Burke,  and  the  third," 
gracefully  carrying  his  hand  to  his  own,  "modesty 
forbids  me  to  mention."  The  vanity  of  the  great 
surgeon  never  offended  against  good  taste. 

Mott  never  felt  more  at  home  than  in  the  am- 
phitheatre, surrounded  by  his  pupils.  He  delight- 
ed to  instruct  them,  to  watch  the  development  of 
their  knowledge,  and  to  infuse  into  them  some  of 
his  own  enthusiasm.  Lord  Eldon,  it  is  said,  never 
was  so  happy  as  when  he  was  in  Westminster 
Hall,  in  the  midst  of  the  members  of  the  bar, 
explaining  some  great  and  knotty  point  of  law; 
and  the  great  surgeon  experienced  similar  gratifi- 
cation in  expounding  to  his  youthful  and  inge- 
nuous auditors  the  principles  and  practice  of  his 
favorite  branch  of  science. 

His  private  pupils  were  numerous,  especially  in 
the  earlier  part  of  his  career,  and  are  scattered,  far 
and  wide,  over  this  vast  continent,  disseminating 
his  doctrines,  and  illustrating  his  practice.  Not  a 
few  of  them  have  shone  with  the  reflected  light 
of  their  illustrious  master,  while  others,  more  for- 
tunate, have  risen  by  the  force  of  their  intellectual 
powers  to  great  and  deserved  eminence  as  teachers 
and  practitioners.  Who  can  estimate  the  vast 
amount  of  good  which  a  great  surgeon,  occupying 
a  high  social  and  professional  position,  may  confer 
upon    mankind    through    his   pupils  ?      The    seed 


VALENTINE  MOTT,  M.  D.  65 

thus  sown  may  be  transmitted  to  the  most  remote 
ages,  increasing  in  vigor  and  freshness  as  it  de- 
scends along  the  stream  of  time. 

His  regard  for  medical  students  induced  him  in 
1856,  as  a  means  of  encouragement,  to  institute 
three  prize  medals  for  the  best  dissections  and  clin- 
ical reports  in  the  University  of  the  City  of  New 
York.  The  awards  were  made  annually,  on  com- 
mencement day,  to  the  three  most  distinguished 
pupils  up  to  the  time  of  his  death,  and  the  exam- 
ple thus  set  has  had  the  effect  of  inciting  similar 
enterprises  on  the  part  of  other  eminent  teachers. 
In  his  Will  he  ordered  a  fund  to  be  set  apart  for 
the  perpetuation  of  these  prize  medals,  the  great 
object  of  which  is  the  promotion  of  the  pupil's 
welfare,  not  the  gratification  of  any  selfish  vanity. 
"I  shall  be  cheered,"  he  remarks,  "both  now  and 
hereafter,  by  the  thought  that  I  have  thus  been 
enabled  to  show  my  regard  for  him.  I  shall  be 
cheered  by  the  thought  that  any  little  distinction, 
which  the  possession  of  this  medal  shall  obtain  for 
him,  may  enable  him  more  manfully  and  success- 
fully to  contend  with  the  vicissitudes  of  life.  I 
shall  be  still  more  cheered  by  the  thought  that, 
perhaps,  the  last  words  I  shall  ever  utter,  in  rela- 
tion to  the  recollections  and  associations  which 
this  emblem  recalls  and  inspires,  shall  enable  him 
to  meet  his  fate  with  serenity,  when,  like  me,  he 
is  preparing  for  the  messenger  of  death." 

5 


66  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF 

The  preparations  accruing  from  the  award  of 
these  prizes  were  always  added  to  his  museum, 
comprising  nearly  looo  specimens  in  healthy  and 
morbid  anatomy,  besides  a  considerable  number 
of  casts,  wax  models,  and  paintings.  The  patho- 
logical specimens  were  the  product  principally  of 
his  own  surgical  operations,  many  of  which  were 
of  a  very  formidable  character.  It  was  by  far  the 
largest  collection  of  the  kind  in  the  country,  and 
upwards  of  half  a  century  had  been  spent  in  its 
accumulation.  The  great  majority  of  the  prepa- 
rations, properly  so  called,  were  made  with  his 
own  hands.  The  museum  was  particularly  rich 
in  tumors,  aneurisms,  and  diseased  bones,  joints, 
arteries,  and  bladders.  The  specimens  were  all 
arranged  according  to  their  respective  affinities, 
and  were  illustrated  by  a  comprehensive  catalogue, 
published  in  1858.  It  is  with  sorrow  that  I  add 
that  nearly  the  whole  of  this  valuable  and  magni- 
ficent collection  was  lost  in  the  burning  of  the 
edifice  of  the  University  Medical  College  in  1866, 
shortly  after  the  death  of  its  distinguished  owner. 

Dr.  Mott's  career,  as  a  public  lecturer,  was  a 
remarkably  checkered  one.  He  was  connected 
with  quite  a  number  of  medical  schools,  and  Jiad, 
consequently,  had  many  colleagues.  With  all  of 
them  he  lived  on  the  very  best  terms — with  some 
of  them,  indeed,  on  terms  of  intimacy — and  there 
was  not  an  individual  with  whom  he  ever  had  any 


VALENTINE  MOTT,  M.  D.  67 

serious  misunderstanding ;  indeed,  hardly  a  word 
of  difference.  He  had,  of  course,  his  views  and 
opinions,  but  he  never  attempted  to  enforce  them 
against  the  wishes,  feelings,  or  prejudices  of  others. 
He  was  too  amiable  and  courteous  a  man  to  quar- 
rel; a  mode  of  settling  questions  at  one  time,  un- 
fortunately, too  common  in  American  medical 
schools. 

Dr.  Mott's  official  connection  with  charitable 
institutions  was  long  and  extensive.  Soon  after 
his  return  from  Europe,  in  1809,  he  was  appointed 
Surgeon  to  the  New  York  Hospital,  one  of  the 
oldest  and  most  celebrated  eleemosynary  establish- 
ments in  America,  affording  vast  opportunities  for 
the  study  and  treatment  of  diseases  and  accidents. 
He  retained  his  connection  with  the  Hospital 
until  1835,  when  failing  health  compelled  him  to 
retire.  Many  of  his  most  brilliant  and  daring 
exploits  were  performed  within  its  walls,  and  it 
was  there,  in  the  presence  of  admiring  pupils,  that 
he  delivered  many  of  his  most  able  and  valuable 
courses  of  clinical  instruction;  a  branch  of  educa- 
tion which  he  afterwards  more  fully  elaborated  as 
Professor  of  Surgery  in  the  University  of  the  City 
of  New  York. 

On  his  return  from  his  foreign  travels,  he  re- 
entered the  Hospital,  but  finally  severed  his  con- 
nection with  it,  in  1850,  on  the  occasion  of  his 
third   visit   to    Europe.      He   was   afterwards,    for 


68  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF 

fifteen  years,  associated  as  Senior  Consulting  Sur- 
geon with  Bellevue  Hospital ;  and  he  also  served, 
for  some  time,  in  a  similar  capacity,  St.  Luke's 
Hospital,  the  Jews',  St.  Vincent's,  and  the  Wo- 
men's Hospital,  in  the  latter  of  which  he  always 
felt  the  deepest  interest.  On  the  8th  of  Decem- 
ber, 1866,  a  tablet,  erected  to  his  memory  at  Belle- 
vue Hospital,  was  unveiled.  It  is  situated  in  the 
main  hall  opposite  to  the  stone  upon  which  Wash- 
ington stood  when  the  oath  of  office  as  President 
of  the  United  States  was  administered  to  him  by 
Chancellor  Livingston.  It  bears  the  following 
inscription : — 

In  Memoriam.  Valentine  Mott,  M.  D.;  born, 
August  20th,  1785;  died,  April  26th,  1865:  —  a 
pioneer  in  Surgery  of  world-wide  fame,  his  name 
is  embalmed  in  the  operations  which  he  devised, 
in  the  far-reaching  influence  of  his  instructions, 
and  in  the  kindly  recollections  of  his  life.  In 
grateful  remembrance  of  his  valuable  and  volun- 
tary services  during  a  period  of  fifteen  years  as 
Consulting  Surgeon  of  Bellevue  Hospital,  this 
tablet  has  been  erected  by  the  Commissioners  of 
Public  Charities  and  Corrections  of  the  City  of 
New  York,  A.  D.  1866. 


VALENTINE  MOTT,  M.  D.  69 


CHAPTER  VI. 

LAST  ILLNESS. 

Last    illness  —  Funeral  —  Personal   appearance  —  Marriage  —  Memorial 
Library  —  Family. 

With  the  exception  of  an  occasional  brief  in- 
disposition, Dr.  Mott,  after  his  return  from  Europe 
in  1 841,  enjoyed  excellent  health  to  within  a  few 
months  of  his  last  illness,  when  his  family  and 
friends  began  to  notice  a  manifest  decline  in  his 
physical  powers,  attended  with  erratic  pains,  chiefly 
seated  in  the  back  and  limbs,  and,  now  and  then, 
exceedingly  severe.  Time,  in  its  onward  course, 
had  made  little  outward  impression  upon  him. 
At  my  last  interview  with  him  in  the  autumn  of 
1863,  he  was  as  erect,  and,  apparently,  as  active, 
as  when  I  first  met  with  him  upwards  of  a  third 
of  a  century  before.  The  frosts  of  eighty  winters 
had  hardly  touched  his  hair.  His  mind,  always 
clear  and  well  poised,  had  undergone  no  change. 
His  equanimity,  his  temperance,  and  his  regular 
habits  had  maintained  the  machinery  of  his  body 
in  the  best  possible  condition  for  the  attainment 
of  longevity  and  the  enjoyment  of  physical  and 
mental  comfort.  Without  care,  in  the  undisputed 
possession  of  every  earthly  source  of  happiness — 


70  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF 

wealth,  fame,  friends,  and  a  family  that  literally 
worshipped  him — his  life  was  one  of  uninterrupted 
serenity.  So  well,  indeed,  were  all  the  faculties 
of  his  mind  and  body  preserved  that  he  continued 
to  operate  up  to  the  close  of  his  life.  It  was  only 
occasionally,  as  when  the  case  was  one  of  uncom- 
mon delicacy,  and  when,  from  some  cause  or 
other,  his  hand  was  not  as  steady  as  usual,  that  he 
would  resign  the  knife  to  his  son.  Dr.  Alexander 
B.  Mott,  who  for  the  last  sixteen  years  of  his  life 
had  been  his  constant  assistant. 

His  last  illness  was  brief.  On  Saturday,  April 
the  22d,  he  left  his  house,  as  had  been  his  wont, 
at  I  o'clock,  apparently  in  excellent  health  and 
spirits,  to  make  his  morning  rounds.  He  had, 
however,  hardly  been  gone  an  hour,  when  he 
came  back  in  a  violent  rigor,  his  teeth  chattering, 
and  his  whole  frame  shivering  with  cold.  He 
complained  of  severe  pain  in  his  right  leg  and  of 
a  sense  of  extreme  exhaustion.  The  limb  gradu- 
ally assumed  a  purplish  and  oedematous  aspect,  but 
the  pain  soon  entirely  ceased,  and  long  before 
death  came  to  his  relief  all  physical  suffering  had 
vanished.  Everything  was  done,  but  in  vain, 
by  his  physicians,  aided  by  the  wise  counsel  of  his 
able,  learned,  and  distinguished  friend.  Professor 
Austin  Flint,  to  avert  the  fatal  shafts  of  death. 
He  expired  at  his  residence,  Gramercy  Park,  at  a 
quarter    past    ii    o'clock,    April   the    26th,    1865. 


VALENTINE  MOTT,  M.  D.  71 

He  retained  his  consciousness  to  the  last,  and  sunk 
into  his  long  rest  without  a  struggle,  softly  and 
gently  as  a  child  falls  asleep  upon  its  mother's 
breast.  The  last  words  he  uttered  were,  "Order, 
Truth,  Punctuality;"  fitting  expressions  for  one 
whose  whole  life  had  been  an  exemplification  of 
the  force  of  their  import. 

Although  he  had  reached  the  age  of  fourscore 
years — a  period  when  life  is  usually  held  by  a  fee- 
ble tenure  —  yet  the  news  of  his  death  created 
universal  grief.  The  medical  profession,  whose 
honored  head  he  had  so  long  been,  felt  that  it 
had  suddenly  been  deprived  of  one  of  its  greatest 
ornaments,  and  the  city  of  New  York,  for  so 
many  years  the  scene  of  his  labor  and  renown, 
mourned  as  a  city  only  can  mourn  when  it  loses 
one  of  its  conscript  fathers. 

The  funeral  took  place  on  Sunday,  April  the 
31st,  in  the  presence  of  an  immense  concourse  of 
citizens,  all  anxious  to  testify  their  respect  and  es- 
teem. The  medical  profession  attended  in  a  body. 
Many  of  the  most  prominent  divines,  lawyers, 
literary  men,  artists,  and  merchants  were  present. 
The  coffin,  placed  in  the  Church  of  the  Trans- 
figuration, was  decorated  with  the  choicest  flow- 
ers, emblems  of  purity  and  aflfection,  reflecting 
the  fragrance  of  a  well-spent  life.  The  body  was 
deposited  in  Greenwood  Cemetery,  in  the  family 
vault,  built  under  his  own  instructions,  ten  years 


72 


THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF 


previously,  in  the  form  of  a  chapel  with  fifteen 
marble  catacombs,  in  the  highest  central  one  of 
which  are  his  remains.  A  niche  above  is  to  be 
occupied  by  his  bust,  from  the  chisel  of  the  dis- 
tinguished sculptor,  Mr.  Ward,  of  New  York. 
On  the  marble  slab  which  seals  the  chamber  are 
inscribed  these  words: — 

"Valentine  Mott,  M.D.,  LL.  D.,  born  at  Glen- 
coe,  Long  Island,  August  20th,  1785;  died  in  New 
York,  April  26th,  1865. 

My  implicit  faith  and  hope  are  in  a  merciful  Redeemer, 

Who  is  the  Resurrection  and  the  Life.     Amen,  Amen." — V.  Mott. 

The  personal  appearance  of  Dr.  Mott  was  emi- 
nently prepossessing.  Tall  and  erect,  with  broad 
shoulders,  and  a  fine  muscular  development,  he 
had  an  open,  handsome  countenance,  a  frank, 
manly  expression,  and  a  dignified  yet  cordial  man- 
ner. His  stature  was  fully  six  feet,  his  forehead 
high  and  prominent,  the  mouth  small,  the  nose 
aquiline,  the  chin  round  and  dimpled,  the  eye 
large,  of  hazel  hue,  and  shaded  by  a  heavy  brow, 
and  the  hair,  in  early  life,  nearly  black  with  a 
slight  inclination  to  brownish.  His  features  were 
regular,  and  indicative  of  the  benevolence  which 
formed  so  remarkable  a  trait  in  his  character.  It 
has  already  been  stated  that  he  was  for  a  long 
time  known  by  the  sobriquet  of  the  handsome 
Quaker  Doctor.  He  retained  his  good  looks 
until  his  death.      Even  his  sight  was  excellent  to 


VALENTINE  MOTT,  M.  D.  73 

the  last.  He  never  wore  glasses,  except  at  night, 
or  when  he  had  a  very  delicate  operation  to  per- 
form. In  old  age  his  hearing  and  his  touch  never 
lost  their  delicacy,  and  he  was  always  proud  of  his 
light,  elastic  tread.  In  his  dress  and  in  his  habits 
he  was  the  very  perfection  of  neatness.  He  did 
not  lay  aside  entirely  the  external  characteristics 
of  the  Quaker  until  his  visit  to  Europe  in  1835. 

In  1 819,  Dr.  Mott  married  Louisa  Dunmore 
Mums,  a  lady  of  English  descent,  congenial  tem- 
per, great  personal  attractions,  elegant  manners, 
and  rare  intellectual  endowments.  The  possession 
of  such  a  wife  was  the  crowning  happiness  of  his 
long  and  well-spent  life.  The  union  lasted  nearly 
forty-six  years.  Since  his  death  Mrs.  Mott  has 
publicly  manifested  her  high  appreciation  of  his 
character  by  the  purchase,  at  a  cost  of  upwards  of 
$30,000,  of  a  suitable  edifice  for  the  accommoda- 
tion of  "The  Mott  Memorial  Library,"  lately 
incorporated  by  an  act  of  the  Legislature  of  New 
York.  It  is  a  monument  of  affection  and  esteem, 
reared  wholly  at  her  own  expense,  and  is  a  beau- 
tiful exhibition  of  devotion,  of  which  history  pre- 
sents few  examples.  Among  the  most  remarkable 
instances  in  this  country  are  those  of  Mrs.  Miitter, 
who  built  St.  Luke's  Chapel  at  Middletown,  Con- 
necticut, in  commemoration  of  her  husband,  the 
late  Dr.  Thomas  D.  Mutter,  formerly  Professor  of 
Surgery  in  the  Jefferson  Medical  College  of  Phila- 


74 


THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF 


delphia ;  and  of  Mrs.  Dudley,  who  erected  the 
Dudley  Observatory  at  Albany,  in  honor  of  her 
husband.  The  story  of  Artemisia  is  familiar  to 
every  classical  scholar.  When  she  lost  her  hus- 
band, a  monarch  remarkable  for  his  accomplish- 
ments and  exalted  character,  she  abandoned  herself 
to  the  wildest  grief;  but,  at  length,  rising  superior 
to  her  sorrow,  she  reared  that  splendid  monument 
which  formed  one  of  the  seven  wonders  of  the 
world,  and  which,  after  the  lapse  of  thousands  of 
years,  still  bears  the  name  of  Mausolus. 

The  Memorial  Library  contains  Dr.  Mott's 
medical  books,  with  a  number  of  works  contri- 
buted, since  his  death,  by  his  former  personal 
friends;  is  free  to  medical  students  and  physicians 
generally;  and  was  formally  inaugurated  on  the 
iith  of  October,  1866.  The  collection,  without 
being  extensive,  comprises  a  choice  assortment  of 
the  best  surgical  treatises,  ancient  and  modern, 
and  also  a  large  number  of  medical  pamphlets, 
many  of  which  date  as  far  back  as  the  commence- 
ment of  the  present  century.  In  the  principal 
room  are  his  desk  and  library  chairs,  with  a  highly 
finished  bust  of  himself.  His  Bible  and  Prayer 
Book,  the  constant  companions  of  his  long  life, 
occupy  their  accustomed  places,  and  are  truthful 
witnesses  of  the  piety  and  excellence  of  his  cha- 
racter. The  walls  are  hung  with  portraits  of 
himself,  Lettsom,  John  Hunter,  Francis,  McLean, 


VALENTINE  MOTT,  M.  D.  75 

and  others,  worthy  inmates  of  an  institution  de- 
signed to  perpetuate  the  usefulness  of  a  great  and 
good  man.  The  old  library  clock,  so  often  wound 
up  with  his  own  fingers,  stands  upon  one  of  the 
mantels,  with  the  minute  hand  pointing  to  a  quar- 
ter past  1 1  o'clock,  the  period  of  his  departure,  a 
silent  monitor  of  the  uncertainty  of  life,  and  of 
the  ravages  of  Time.  A  model  of  his  right  hand, 
the  ready  servant  of  his  intellect  in  a  thousand 
surgical  exploits,  taken  in  plaster-of-Paris  after 
his  death,  is  inclosed  in  a  separate  case. 

In  addition  to  these  objects  the  apartment  con- 
tains the  surgical  instruments  of  Dr.  Mott,  a 
choice  and  valuable  collection,  now,  as  their  for- 
mer owner,  resting  from  their  labor.  His  scalpels 
were  mostly  of  English  make,  principally  from 
the  manufactory  of  Laundy.  He  was  fond  of  his 
old  instruments,  the  companions  of  his  earlier  ca- 
reer, and  frequently  employed  them  in  preference 
to  the  more  improved  models  of  the  day.  In  his 
last  interview  with  Sir  Astley  Cooper,  the  evening 
before  he  left  London,  that  great  man  presented 
him  with  a  magnificent  case  of  instruments,  of 
his  own  invention,  as  a  token  of  his  friendship 
and  regard;  and  a  similar  souvenir,  consisting  of 
a  splendid  set  of  amputating  knives,  made  of  the 
iron  and  wood  of  the  Old  London  Bridge,  was 
presented  to  him  by  Mr.  Bransby  B.  Cooper,  Sir 
Astley's  nephew. 


76  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF 

It  is  a  quaint  saying  of  Bacon  that  great  men 
have  no  continuance,  and  the  truth  of  the  remark 
is  confirmed  by  many  striking  examples  in  history. 
This  was  not,  however,  the  case  with  Dr.  Mott. 
His  marriage  was  blessed  with  nine  children,  six 
sons  and  three  daughters.  One  of  the  eldest  sons, 
Valentine,  served  for  some  time  as  Surgeon-in- 
Chief  of  the  Sicilian  Army,  and  died  at  an  early 
age  of  yellow  fever  at  New  Orleans  in  1852. 
Dr.  Alexander  B.  Mott,  now  the  only  member  of 
the  family  in  the  profession,  worthily  represents 
his  father's  fame — often  a  most  dangerous  inherit- 
ance— and  is  rapidly  rising  into  distinction  as  a 
successful  operator  and  teacher.  The  number  of 
his  grandchildren,  at  the  time  of  his  death,  was 
sixteen,  of  whom  two  bear  his  honored  name. 


VALENTINE  MOTT,  M.  D.  77 


CHAPTER  VII. 

CHARACTER  AND  HABITS. 

Earnest  professional  devotion — Reputation  as  a  great  surgeon — Elected 
a  Member  of  the  Institute  of  France — Patriotism  and  politics — Pro- 
fessional fees — System  and  punctuality — Domestic  habits — Religious 
views — Portraits  and  busts — Conclusion. 

Having  thus  traced  the  career  of  Dr.  Mott 
from  the  cradle  to  the  grave,  it  will  not  be  diffi- 
cult to  form  a  true  estimate  of  his  character  as  a 
miember  of  a  great  and  learned  profession;  a  pro- 
fession which,  whether  we  consider  its  high  anti- 
quity, its  sacred  mission,  or  its  genius  and  enter- 
prise, is  inferior  to  none  other,  not  even  divinity 
itself. 

A  close  analysis  will  serve  to  show  that  his 
greatness  does  not  consist  in  any  one  single  act, 
operation,  or  achievement;  not  in  any  grand  im- 
provement, invention,  or  discovery;  but  in  the 
entirety  of  the  man,  the  perfection  of  his  whole 
character,  the  tout  ensonble  of  his  life.  There 
have  been  many  physicians  and  surgeons  of  as 
much  talent;  many  who  have  lectured  as  well; 
many  who  have  handled  the  scalpel  with  as  much 
dexterity;  many,  in  a  word,  who,  perhaps,  have 
done  some  of  these  things   even  better  than  he, 


78  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF 

and  yet  very  few,  indeed,  who  have  combined  these 
and  other  important  qualities  in  the  same  degree 
as  Dr.  Mott. 

Eminently  fitted   by  nature  and  education  for 
the  medical  profession,  he  devoted  himself  to  its 
study  and  practice  with    all  the  energies  of  his 
soul.     For  a  period  of  nearly  two-thirds  of  a  cen- 
tury he  never   for  a   moment   swerved   from   his 
allegiance.     He  loved  surgery  as  his  mistress,  and 
his  constancy  merited  all  the  favors  which  she  so 
lavishly    showered    upon    him.      He    opened    his 
account  with  posterity  when  he  entered  the  pro- 
fession, and  perfected  it  at  the  early  age  of  thirty- 
three,  when  he  placed  a  ligature  upon  the  innom- 
inate artery,  almost  in  contact  with  the  arch  of 
the  aorta;  and  he  performed,  as  already  stated,  a 
greater    number   of   capital    operations    than    any 
surgeon  that  has  ever  lived.     Long  before  he  had 
reached   the  meridian  of  his  life,  his  name  had 
become  a  tower  of  strength  throughout  the  length 
and  breadth  of  this  continent.     If  success  be  a 
measure  of  talent  and  genius,  Mott  was  eminently 
great.      The    generation    in   which   he    lived,   so 
prolific   in  illustrious  surgeons,  acknowledged  no 
superior.     The  New  World  is  as  justly  proud  of 
Mott,   Physick,   McClellan,  and  Warren,   as   the 
Old  of  Dupuytren,  Cooper,  Graefe,  Bell,  or  Lis- 
ton;   immortal   names   in   surgery.      If  his   genius 
was   not   dazzling,  it   burnt  with  a  steady  flame. 


VALENTINE  MOTT,  M.  D.  79 

which  was  extinguished  only  with  his  last  breath. 
The  numerous  scientific  and  literary  honors  that 
were  showered  upon  him,  both  at  home  and 
abroad,  are  a  flattering  evidence  of  the  high  esti- 
mation in  which  he  was  held  by  his  contempora- 
ries in  all  parts  of  the  civilized  world. 

A  great  surgeon  is  a  kind  of  Lord  High  Chan- 
cellor, a  Keeper  of  the  Great  Seal  of  State,  as  it 
were,  to  whose  judgment  are  referred  all  cases  of 
a  grave  or  uncommon  nature,  whether  of  disease 
or  accident,  occurring  within  his  bailiwick.  He 
is  supposed,  from  his  superior  knowledge,  to  be 
especially  qualified  to  detect  and  rectify  morbid 
action,  to  penetrate  the  most  hidden  secrets  of  the 
human  frame,  to  perform  the  most  delicate  ope- 
rations, to  possess  peculiar  skill  in  the  adaptation 
of  mechanical  appliances,  and,  in  short,  to  meet, 
promptly  and  effectually,  every  emergency,  how- 
ever trying  or  unexpected.  I  unhesitatingly  assert, 
without  the  fear  of  successful  contradiction,  that 
it  requires  as  much  intellect,  talent,  genius,  and 
knowledge  to  form  a  great  surgeon  as  it  does  to 
form  a  great  lawyer,  judge,  divine,  general,  or 
statesman ;  and  I  hold  that  when  a  man  has 
reached  the  highest  point  of  professional  distinc- 
tion; when  he  stands  upon  a  pinnacle  where  all 
men  may  see  and  study  him,  looming  out  in  bold 
and  prominent  outline  before  the  world,  that  it  is 
an  evidence,  unmistakable  and  incontrovertible,  of 


So  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF 

true  greatness.  Few  men,  in  any  walk  of  life, 
ever  attain  the  topmost  round  of  the  ladder  of 
fame.  Industry,  steady  and  persistent,  may  ac- 
complish much,  but,  unaided  by  genius,  it  is  com- 
paratively ineffective,  if  not  positively  barren  of 
useful  results.  The  drop  of  water  incessantly  fall- 
ing may,  in  time,  wear  away  the  most  solid  rock; 
but  it  can  never  fashion  the  marble  into  the  speak- 
ing statue  of  a  Phidias  or  a  Chantry. 

True  character  is  often  mirrored  forth  by  the 
most  trivial  circumstance.  The  virtues  and  the 
vices  of  persons  are  not,  as  has  been  justly  re- 
marked by  Plutarch,  in  his  account  of  Alexander, 
always  seen  to  the  best  advantage  in  their  most 
famous .  exploits.  An  insignificant  act,  a  pithy 
saying,  or  a  ready  jest  frequently  affords  a  more 
correct  insight  into  their  character  than  a  siege  or 
a  battle.  Biography  does  not  lift  the  veil  of  pri- 
vate life  from  idle  curiosity;  it  respects  the  sanc- 
tity of  the  fireside;  it  pries  into  no  family  secrets. 
It  merely  portrays  the  aesthetic  life  —  the  soul 
which  animates  and  beautifies  the  features  of  the 
picture  on  the  wall.  Dr.  Mott  was  one  of  those 
pure  and  exalted  beings  who,  worshipping  God  in 
Nature — 

"Find  tongues  in  trees,  books  in  the  running  brooks. 
Sermons  in  stones,  and  good  in  everything," 

He  was  amiable  and  gentle  almost  to  a  fault. 
Harshness,  jealousy,  and  bitterness  never  had  a  home 


VALENTINE  MOTT,  M.  D.  8  I 

in  his  breast.  His  countenance  beamed  habitually 
with  benevolence.  He  had  a  way  to  every  man's 
heart.  In  him  sorrow  and  suffering  ever  found  a 
ready  sympathizer.  Like  Sir  Thomas  More,  "he 
upbore  the  weary,  and  gave  drink  to  the  thirsty, 
and  reflected  heaven  in  his  face."  In  all  the  en- 
dearing relations  of  life — as  son,  husband,  father — 
as  a  citizen,  a  Christian,  and  a  member  of  an  ho- 
nored profession — his  conduct  was  a  model. 

Few  surgeons,  certainly  none  in  this  country, 
have  ever  received  so  many  testimonials  of  respect 
and  esteem  from  medical,  scientific,  and  literary 
societies,  domestic  and  foreign,  as  Dr.  Mott.  It 
would  be  tedious,  as  well  as  foreign  to  my  pur- 
*pose,  to  enumerate  the  various  honors  thus  con- 
ferred. It  will  be  sufficient  to  mention  a  few 
only,  because  of  the  great  gratification  which 
they  afl^orded  him.  Foremost  among  these  was 
his  election  as  a  Foreign  Associate  of  the  Institute 
of  France,  an  institution  which,  occupying  the 
highest  rank  in  the  French  Empire,  is  composed 
only  of  the  more  illustrious  savans,  men  who  pos- 
sess some  peculiar  claim  to  consideration,  either 
on  account  of  their  discoveries,  their  scientific 
attainments,  extraordinary  learning,  or  the  great 
talent  which  they  display  in  the  exercise  of  their 
particular  vocation.  It  holds  in  France  the  same 
position  as  the  Royal  Society  of  London  in  Great 
Britain,  or  the  American  Philosophical  Society  in 
6 


82  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF 

the  United  States,  with  this  difference,  that  ad- 
mission to  membership  is  much  more  difficult. 
To  have  one's  name  enrolled  in  the  list  of  Foreign 
Associates  is  therefore  a  high  honor,  which,  until 
recently,  no  other  American  ever  enjoyed.  The 
compliment,  shared  by  Sir  Humphry  Davy,  Lord 
Brougham,  and  Sir  John  Herschel  of  England, 
Sir  David  Brewster  of  Scotland,  Berzelius  of  Swe- 
den, Humboldt  and  Ehrenberg  of  Germany,  and 
Matteucci  of  Italy,  was  well  merited.  The  Insti- 
tute of  France  was  founded  in  1793,  upon  the 
ruins  of  the  Academies  of  Inscriptions  and  Belles- 
Lettres  and  of  Sciences,  which  were  combined  in 
one  body  under  this  title. 

In  1852,  he  was  made  an  Honorary  Fellow  of 
the  King  and  Queen's  College  of  Physicians  of 
Ireland,  an  association  founded  soon  after  the 
middle  of  the  seventeenth  century.  At  the  time 
of  his  election  only  twenty-six  foreigners  had 
received  this  compliment,  he  being  the  only  Ame- 
rican. He  was  a  Member  of  the  Surgical  Society 
of  Paris,  of  the  Medical  Societies  of  Berlin,  Brus- 
sels, and  Athens,  and  of  the  Medical  and  Chirur- 
gical  Society  of  London. 

He  was  for  many  years  President  of  the  Medi- 
cal Faculty  of  the  University  of  the  City  of  New 
York,  and  for  some  time  President  of  the  New 
York  Academy  of  Medicine,  in  the  establishment 
of  which  he  took  a  very  active  part.     He  was  a 


VALENTINE  MOTT,  M.  D.  83 

warm  friend  of  the  New  York  Inebriate  Asylum 
at  Binghampton,  and  at  the  time  of  his  death  was 
its  President.  The  University  of  Edinburgh  con- 
ferred upon  him  the  honorary  degree  of  M.  D., 
and  the  University  of  the  State  of  New  York  the 
degree  of  LL.  D. 

Among  his  correspondents  were  many  of  the 
most  distinguished  surgeons  and  physicians  of  the 
United  States  and  of  Europe.  Larrey,  Roux, 
Civiale,  Velpeau,  Cloquet,  Graefe,  Cooper,  Tra- 
vers,  Liston,  Lawrence,  Fergusson,  and  Knox  were 
the  principal  foreign  ones.  The  letters  of  these 
men  would,  if  properly  arranged,  form  an  inte- 
resting volume. 

The  reminiscences  of  his  foreign  travels,  em- 
bracing a  period  of  seven  years,  were  innumerable. 
He  had  always  a  ready  fund  of  anecdote,  and  was, 
consequently,  a  most  agreeable  diner-out,  although 
he  rarely  indulged  in  that  pleasure.  At  his  own 
table,  where  he  led  conversation,  he  seldom  de- 
scended to  the  trifles  of  the  day,  was  nervously 
impatient  of  interruption,  or  of  an  omission  of 
etiquette,  and  always  claimed  and  commanded  a 
hearing. 

Although  he  had  travelled  extensively  abroad, 
he  had  seen  but  little  of  his  own  country  outside 
of  New  York.  He  had  never  beheld  the  mighty 
Mississippi,  our  vast  and  magnificent  lakes,  dot- 
ting the  surface  like  so  many  inland  seas,  our  wide- 


84  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF 

Spread  prairies,  studded  with  myriads  of  gorgeous 
wild-flowers,  or  the  majestic  mountain  scenery  of 
Pennsylvania,  Virginia,  and  Vermont.  Many  years 
ago  I  wrote  to  him,  urging  him  to  visit  the  South- 
western States,  adding  that  no  intelligent  Ameri- 
can gentleman  should  permit  himself  to  die  before 
he  had  seen  that  glorious  section  of  our  great  and 
growing  country.  His  reply  was,  "I  am  afraid 
of  steamboat  explosions."  The  last  journey  he 
ever  undertook  was  a  visit  to  Annapolis,  as  a 
member  of  a  committee  appointed  by  Govern- 
ment to  examine  into  the  condition  of  the  Fede- 
ral prisoners  at  the  South.  He  rarely,  even  in  his 
youth,  went  to  any  watering-places.  For  many 
years  before  his  death  the  comforts  of  home  were 
so  essential  to  him  that  he  could  not  dispense 
with  them,  and  the  crowd  and  confusion  offered 
him  no  temptation.  Lebanon  and  West  Point 
were  the  only  places  of  summer  resort  he  could 
endure.  The  country,  in  fact,  had  no  charm  for 
him.  He  longed  for  his  books  and  his  patients, 
and  he  invariably  came  to  town  in  the  morning, 
returning  in  the  evening.  In  1846,  he  built,  near 
the  Bloomingdale  road,  an  elegant  and  stately 
mansion,  adorned  with  various  kinds  of  trees  and 
shrubbery,  and  surrounded  with  gardens,  conserv- 
atories, and  graperies,  which  he  used  as  a  summer 
retreat  until  the  time  of  his  decease. 

He   was   rarely   seen   at   places   of  amusement. 


VALENTINE  MOTT,  M.  D.  85 

Whenever  he  visited  the  theatre,  his  interest  in 
the  play  w^as  almost  childlike,  a  source  of  real 
pleasure  and  enjoyment.  His  mind,  in  a  constant 
state  of  tension  with  grave  thoughts,  easily  yielded 
to  any  outside  gayety. 

During  his  residence  abroad  his  taste  for  pic- 
tures and  the  fine  arts  greatly  grew  upon  him — 
for  in  early  life  he  had  no  time,  and,  indeed,  but 
little  opportunity  for  its  indulgence — and  after  his 
return  the  walls  of  his  house  were  covered  with 
copies  of  the  old  masters  and  originals  of  the  very 
best  schools.  At  that  time  few  persons  in  this 
country  encouraged  the  fine  arts  or  cared  to  accu- 
mulate objects  of  virtu;  but  he  was  always  sur- 
rounded by  every  elegance  and  luxury,  and  the 
bent  of  his  mind  made  an  atmosphere  and  a  cer- 
tain degree  of  display  absolutely  necessary  to  his 
comfort;  a  circumstance  in  strange  contrast  with 
the  otherwise  stern  simplicity  of  his  life,  charac- 
ter, and  occupation. 

Dr.  Mott,  I  believe,  never  occupied  any  official 
position  apart  from  his  profession.  His  name  is 
not  associated  with  any  great  state  movement  for 
the  benefit  of  the  public,  except  the  establishment 
of  the  New  York  Inebriate  Asylum,  or  with  any 
measure  for  the  improvement  of  his  adopted  city, 
although  he  always  felt  the  deepest  interest  in  its 
scientific,  literary,  humanitarian,  and  commercial 
prosperity.     His  confidence  in  his  fellow-citizens 


86  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF 

satisfied  him  that  its  welfare  would  not  be  per- 
mitted to  suffer,  and  he  deemed  it  more  honorable 
to  serve  his  profession  than  the  public. 

A  true  patriot,  he  loved  his  country  with  equal 
purity  and  fervor.  Born  soon  after  the  establish- 
ment of  her  independence,  he  had  been  through 
a  long  lifetime  an  active  witness  of  her  rising 
greatness,  and  in  the  hour  of  her  danger  he  expe- 
rienced the  same  anxiety  for  her  safety  and  ulti- 
mate restoration  which  a  father  feels  for  a  loving 
daughter  threatened  with  some  malignant  distem- 
per. No  one  deplored  more  deeply  than  he  the 
frightful  sacrifice  of  life  and  morals  and  treasure 
sustained  in  the  bloody  conflict.  The  assassina- 
tion of  the  chief  magistrate  of  the  nation  greatly 
shocked  and  distressed  him.  He  regarded  it  as 
an  omen  of  ill  import,  as  a  stain,  permanent  and 
indelible,  upon  the  country's  escutcheon.  His 
mind  continually  brooded  over  the  sad  event,  and 
he  never  was  himself  again  afterwards.  From 
that  moment  death  had  marked  him  as  his  own. 
He  was  not  seriously  ill;  but  unhappy,  despond- 
ent, melancholy,  sick  at  heart,  and  frequently  lost 
in  reverie,  as  if  his  mind  were  absorbed  in  some 
deep,  abstract  study.  Occasionally  a  gleam  of 
sunshine  stole  upon  him,  only,  it  would  seem,  to 
render  darkness  the  more  visible. 

In    politics    he    was    strictly    conservative ;    he 
rarely  went  to  the  polls,  and  politicians  he  cor- 


VALENTINE  MOTT,  M.  D.  8/ 

dially  despised.  In  all  great  national  questions 
his  views  were  calm  and  clear,  and  his  interest 
intense.  A  great  reader  of  newspapers,  he  was 
constantly  on  the  alert  for  information,  and  spared 
no  pains  to  post  himself  thoroughly  in  Congres- 
sional debates  and  foreign  affairs.  During  the 
progress  of  the  war,  his  quiet,'deliberate  manner 
and  feeling  changed,  and  he  became  anxious  and 
restless  respecting  the  latest  intelligence. 

It  is  an  interesting  fact  in  the  life  of  Dr.  Mott 
that  he  inherited  nothing  from  his  father,  save  a 
good  name  and  a  respectable  education.  Such, 
however,  was  his  success  from  the  first  hour  of 
his  professional  career  that  he  was  always  in  easy 
circumstances,  which  increased  so  far  that,  before 
he  was  forty  years  of  age,  he  had  purchased  a 
large  double  house  in  Park  Place,  then  the  fash- 
ionable part  of  the  city,  and  set  up  what  in  those 
days  was  a  very  complete  establishment,  including 
a  tutor  for  his  children,  men  servants,  carriages 
and  horses. 

His  professional  fees  were  always  large,  espe- 
cially in  the  latter  part  of  his  life,  when  people 
readily  paid  any  amount  asked  for  his  services. 
One  thousand  dollars  was  the  largest  sum  he  ever 
received  for  one  individual  operation,  and  this  he 
obtained  only  twice.  One  of  the  patients  was  a 
lady  from  the  Sandwich  Islands.  His  estate  at 
the   time   of  his  death   was  valued   at  nearly  one 


88  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF 

million  of  dollars,  an  immense  sum  for  a  profes- 
sional man  who  was  the  architect  of  his  own  for- 
tune, although  it  is  indisputable  that  great  surgeons 
make  more  money  by  their  practice  than  great 
physicians.  Baron  Dupuytren,  Sir  Astley  Cooper, 
and  Von  Graefe  were  all  millionaires.  Poor  Lis- 
ton,  on  the  contrary,  whose  fame  is  still  upon 
every  one's  lips,  was  hardly  worth  a  few  thousand 
pounds  when  he  died.  Dieffenbach  was  always 
in  debt  and  in  fear  of  the  bailiff! 

Dr.  Mott  was  never  idle.  Reading,  reflection, 
and  observation  were  his  daily  occupation.  He 
kept  himself  thoroughly  posted  in  regard  to  the 
progress  of  his  profession.  The  most  minute  de- 
tails were  familiar  to  him;  and  he  always  spoke 
with  just  pride  of  the  rapid  advances  of  the  med- 
ical sciences.  Everything  that  was  novel,  or  cal- 
culated to  throw  light  upon  any  obscure  disease, 
or  point  of  practice,  at  once  elicited  his  closest 
attention.  He  hailed  with  enthusiasm  the  disco- 
very of  anaesthetics,  of  tenotomy,  and  of  the  proper 
treatment  of  vesico-vaginal  fistule  by  our  country- 
man. Dr.  Marion  Sims.  In  a  word,  he  took  the 
same  keen  interest  in  everything  that  related  to 
his  beloved  profession  on  the  day  of  his  death  as  in 
the  dawn  and  meridian  of  his  existence.  "Live," 
said  the  dying  Christian,  in  his  last  and  most  ear- 
nest counsel  to  his  brethren,  "live  for  the  good  of 
mankind,  for  the  alleviation  of  sickness  and  suf- 


VALENTINE  xMOTT,  M.  D.  89 

fering.  Be  ornaments  to  my  beloved  and  honor- 
able profession ;  fulfil  your  duties  in  every  relation 
of  life;  but  see  that  all  else  above  yours  be  an 
interest  in  my  Saviour  and  Redeemer,  that  you 
fail  not  to  betake  yourselves,  as  I  did,  to  the  Great 
Physician,  and  availing  yourselves  of  all  the  means 
and  remedies  which  He  has  provided,  be  healed 
forever  of  the  manifold  diseases  of  your  souls." 

These  sentiments,  breathed  in  the  genuine  spirit 
of  Christianity,  show  the  deep  interest  he  felt  in 
his  profession,  and  the  manner  in  which,  in  his 
opinion — an  opinion  shared  by  all  good  and  ho- 
norable men — the  physician  should  discharge  his 
numerous  duties  and  obligations.  He  looked 
upon  medicine  as  a  sacred  pursuit,  and  upon  its 
votaries  as  so  many  High  Priests,  anointed  by 
God  for  their  high  and  holy  office. 

As  an  illustration  of  the  interest  which  he  took 
in  everything  relating  to  the  profession,  and  to 
his  own  personal  improvement,  I  may  here  men- 
tion that  Dr.  Mott,  in  the  winter  of  1850  and  '51, 
was  a  member  of  a  class  which  attended  the  lec- 
tures of  Dr.  Goadby  on  microscopical  anatomy,  a 
subject  then  attracting  much  attention  among  New 
York  physicians.  The  meetings  were  held  in  the 
evenings  at  Dr.  Sabine's  office,  and  I  do  not  re- 
member that  he  was  ever  absent  from  his  post. 
And  so  it  was  with  everything  else;  always  busy, 
always  in  earnest,  always  keenly  interested.     His 


90  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF 

vigilance  was  unceasing.  No  rust  ever  blunted 
the  edge  of  his  intellect.  "Intentum  enim  ani- 
mum  quasi  arcum  habebat,  nee  longuescens  suc- 
cumbebat  senectuti."  The  rays  of  science  freely 
entered  the  chambers  of  his  mind  in  the  very 
nightfall  of  his  existence.  He  was  old  only  in 
years;  fresh  and  vigorous  in  everything  else. 

System  and  punctuality  were  cardinal  elements 
in  his  character.  Order  and  precision  predomi- 
nated in  all  his  habits,  and  were,  along  with  steady, 
persistent  industry,  the  means  with  which  he  per- 
formed his  daily  labor  and  achieved  his  vast  repu- 
tation. His  private  office  table  on  the  morning 
he  was  seized  with  his  last  illness  was  piled  a  foot 
high  with  letters ;  but  there  was  no  confusion. 
He  knew  where  everything  was,  and  was  able  in 
a  moment  to  place  his  hand  upon  it. 

Possessed  of  an  extraordinary  memory,  his  mind 
retained  every  detail  of  any  subject  to  which  he 
directed  his  attention;  hence  his  wonderful  exact- 
itude in  all  points  of  medical  science  and  medical 
history.  A  professional  friend,  Professor  Darling, 
of  the  University  of  the  City  of  New  York,  who 
knew  him  intimately  for  many  years,  writing  to 
me  upon  the  subject,  remarks  that  he  had  never 
met  with  any  physician,  either  in  this  country  or 
in  Europe,  who  had  the  details  of  the  history  of 
surgery  so  thoroughly  at  his  command. 

His  mental  culture  was  extensive,  and  he  pos- 


VALENTINE  MOTT,  M.  D.  9 1 

sessed  an  amount  of  general  information  far  be- 
yond what  is  common  among  professional  men. 
Hard  student  as  he  was  in  medical  literature,  he 
reserved  time  enough  for  the  perusal  of  all  the 
more  important  scientific  and  religious  works  and 
reviews.  To  keep  pace  with  the  progress  of  the 
age  was  his  constant  endeavor.  His  familiarity 
with  the  classics  was  surprising,  and  he  often,  in 
everyday  conversation,  indulged  in  allusions  and 
quotations.  One  of  the  principal  amusements  of 
his  leisure  hours  was  the  study  of  Johnson's  Dic- 
tionary, a  copy  of  which  was  always  on  his  library 
table. 

His  domestic  habits  were  characterized  by  great 
simplicity.  When  his  health  permitted  they  were 
uniformly  the  same.  He  daily  rose  at  7  o'clock, 
breakfasted  at  8,  and  dined  at  5,  rarely  taking 
anything  in  the  interval,  except,  perhaps,  a  glass 
of  water.  The  neatness  and  precision  of  his  toilet 
were  as  remarkable  in  his  advanced  as  in  his 
younger  years.  At  9  o'clock  he  went  into  his 
office,  and,  except  when  interrupted  by  his  college 
lectures  or  a  call  to  attend  to  some  urgent  case, 
remained  at  home  until  i  o'clock.  He  then  rode 
out  to  see  his  patients,  to  attend  to  business,  or  to 
make  social  visits.  His  horses  and  carriage  were 
always  in  perfect  order;  he  was  nervously  fastidi- 
ous about  their  being  properly  cared  for,  and  they 
were  never  driven  beyond  a  slow,  dignified  pace. 


92 


THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF 


He  never  was  in  a  hurry,  and  yet  invariably  in 
time.  His  evenings  were  always  spent  in  his 
library,  in  reading,  writing,  or  conversing  with 
his  friends.  The  advancement  of  science,  the 
progress  and  improvement  of  the  age,  absorbed 
his  mind  and  thoughts,  and  he  enjoyed  professional 
and  literary  reading  with  a  keen  relish. 

Socially  he  visited  very  little  in  his  latter  years. 
A  neuralgic  affection  of  his  arm,  and  sudden  at- 
tacks of  irregular  action  of  the  heart,  rendered  it 
necessary  that  he  should  avoid  all  excitement,  and, 
above  all,  crowded  rooms.  He  welcomed  his 
friends  when  they  called  with  great  kindness,  and 
was  always  happy  to  extend  to  them  the  hospital- 
ities of  his  house.  Leading  a  life  of  concentrated 
thought  and  action,  he  was  chary  of  his  time,  and 
restive  under  idle  intrusion.  His  most  intimate 
friends  were  Thaddeus  Phelps,  an  eminent  mer- 
chant, at  whose  house  he  first  made  the  acquaint- 
ance of  Mrs.  Mott,  and  Dr.  John  W.  Francis,  upon 
whom  he  pronounced  the  feeling  eulogy  alluded 
to  in  a  previous  page.  He  had  many  warm 
friends  and  admirers  in  the  profession,  and  no 
physician  or  surgeon  was  ever  more  idolized  by 
his  patients,  from  whom  he  received  numerous 
tokens  of  affection  and  esteem.  In  the  family 
circle  he  was  loving,  gentle,  genial,  and  full  of 
tenderness.  His  intercourse  with  mankind  was 
dignified  and  courteous.     To  his  friends  his  man- 


VALENTINE  MOTT,  M.  D.  93 

ners  were  most  endearing.  A  gentleman  of  the 
old  school,  he  was  destitute  of  every  selfish  feel- 
ing, and  he  was  ever  ready  to  make  any  sacrifice 
for  the  good  of  others.  To  his  dependants  he 
was  considerate,  just,  and  kind-hearted.  His  en- 
mities, like  those  of  Cicero,  were  mortal ;  his 
friendships  eternal.  A  gentleman,  whose  relations 
with  Dr.  Mott  were  most  intimate,  and  who  for 
sixteen  years  assisted  him  in  many  of  his  great 
operations,  informs  me  that  he  never  saw  him 
angry. 

Although  originally  a  Friend,  he  ultimately 
gave  his  adhesion  to  the  Episcopal  Church,  whose 
beautiful  and  sublime  service  had  evidently  made 
a  deep  impression  upon  his  mind.  A  confession 
of  his  faith  was  found  in  a  memorandum-book 
after  his  death.  He  had  implicit  confidence  and 
hope  in  a  merciful  Redeemer,  and  in  a  future  state 
of  existence.  He  never  delivered  a  discourse  to 
his  pupils,  introductory  or  valedictory,  or  a  public 
address  of  any  kind,  in  which  there  was  not  a  dis- 
tinct recognition  of  the  Christian  religion.  His 
Bible  was  his  constant  companion ;  and  he  was 
very  fond  of  reading  the  Greek  Testament,  a  small 
pocket  edition  of  which  always  lay  upon  his  office 
table. 

Two  busts  exist  of  Dr.  Mott ;  one  taken  by 
Brower  at  the  age  of  forty;  the  other  after  death, 
by  Ward.      A   portrait   of  him   was    painted   by 


94  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF 

Jarvis  when  he  was  thirty  years  old,  and  another, 
almost  life-like,  two  years  before  he  died,  by 
Wenzler.  He  sat  for  his  photograph,  also  an  ad- 
mirable picture,  only  a  fortnight  before  his  death. 
The  artist,  Rodgers,  made  a  study  of  his  face  and 
figure  for  the  statuette  called  the  "Charity  Pa- 
tient." The  face,  which  is  too  old,  is  painfully  thin 
and  common;  but  the  figure,  the  compassionate 
gesture,  is  true  to  life.  In  1835,  previously  to  his 
departure  for  Europe,  he  sat,  at  the  request  of  his 
private  pupils,  to  Mr.  Inman  for  a  portrait  which 
now  hangs  in  the  Governors'  rooms  at  the  New 
York  Hospital,  alongside  of  those  of  Bard,  Post, 
Mitchill,  and  Hosack. 

Thus  lived  and  died  Valentine  Mott,  a  man 
whose  career  cannot  be  contemplated  without  ad- 
miration and  respect  for  the  many  virtues  which 
adorned  his  character;  a  career  which,  for  single- 
ness of  purpose,  ardent  love  for  the  profession  to 
which  he  was  so  long  devoted,  and  all  the  ameni- 
ties which  distinguish  the  Christian  gentleman,  is 
as  rare  as  it  is  beautiful.  Posterity  will  recognize 
in  him  a  representative  man,  patient  in  labor, 
steady  in  purpose,  faithful  in  principle,  true  to  his 
vocation,  toiling  to  erect  a  great  and  permanent 
reputation,  worthy  of  his  age  and  country.  Com- 
mencing his  career  during  what  may  be  called 
the  formative  stage  of  American  surgery,  he  lived 


VALENTINE  MOTT,  M.  D.  95 

to  see  this  branch  of  the  healing  art  estabHshed 
among  us  upon  a  broad  and  enduring  basis,  with 
thousands  of  followers,  not  a  few  of  whom  were 
his  own  pupils,  actively  engaged  in  unfolding  its 
great  principles,  in  upholding  its  dignity,  and  in 
advancing  its  interests.     By  the  brilliancy  of  his 
surgical  exploits  he  elevated  the  character  of  the 
American  medical  profession,  and  added  lustre  to 
the  nation.     His  life  affords  a  beautiful  illustration 
of  what  a  man,  true  to  himself  and  his  profession, 
may  accomplish  by  the  force  of  his  intellect  and 
the  improvement  of  his   time  and  opportunities. 
Surgery  and  he  were  indissolubly  linked  together. 
From  the  moment  he  entered  upon  its  practice 
they  became  sworn   friends,    reciprocally  giving, 
receiving,  and  honoring  each  other.     Abandoning 
himself  wholly  to  one   particular  object,   to   one 
distinct   and   definite   aim,   he   nobly   fulfilled   his 
mission.     This  singleness  of  purpose  was  an  ele- 
ment of  power  which  few  men  have  ever  wielded 
with  greater  effect,  and  which  the  youths  of  our 
country,  bent  upon  the  acquisition  of  an  honor- 
able fame,  and  the  accomplishment  of  great  good 
to   the    human    race,   would   do   well   to   imitate. 
They  would  learn,  by  his  example,  that  the  only 
road  to  distinction  and  fortune  is  by  patient  labor, 
steady    devotion,     self-reliance,     and     unswerving 
principle. 

It  will  not  be  inferred  from  what  has  here  been 


96  LIFE  OF  VALENTINE  MOTT,  M.D. 

said  of  Dr.  Mott  that  he  was  exempt  from  the 
infirmities  of  our  common  nature.  To  make  such 
an  assertion  would  be,  to  borrow  the  language  of 
an  elegant  writer,  a  sacrifice  of  truth,  and  an 
empty  compliment  to  the  memory  of  a  good  man. 
He  had  his  failings,  but  not  one  solitary  vice. 
His  life  was  one  of  unsullied  purity.  Whatever 
error  he  had  was  born  with  him ;  not  the  result 
of  habit  or  education.  He  had  a  broad,  expan- 
sive love  for  his  race,  a  profound  self-respect,  and, 
to  use  an  expression  of  Bishop  Burnet,  a  soul  as 
white  as  ever  dwelled  in  a  mortal  body. 


c 


